What happened
On October 28, 2016, American Airlines flight 383, a Boeing 767-323 registered as N345AN, was performing its takeoff ground roll at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. During this phase of flight, the right engine suffered an uncontained failure. The incident caused a fire to break out on the right side of the aircraft. In response to the emergency, the flight crew aborted the takeoff and brought the plane to a halt on the runway. Following the stop, the cabin crew initiated an emergency evacuation.
During the evacuation process, there were 21 injuries recorded, consisting of one serious injury and 20 minor injuries among the passengers and flight attendants. The aircraft sustained substantial damage due to the fire. The investigation noted that while the crew was following engine fire checklists, the evacuation began while the left engine was still running, as the cabin crew acted on their authority to respond to a life-threatening situation.
Findings
Technical analysis determined that the engine failure was caused by the rupture of a high-pressure turbine (HPT) stage 2 disk. This failure released fragments that penetrated the right wing, severed the main fuel feed line, and breached the fuel tank, which directly led to the fire. The physical cause of the disk rupture was identified as low-cycle fatigue cracks originating from an internal manufacturing anomaly known as a "discrete dirty white spot." This specific subsurface defect was likely undetectable during standard production or in-service inspections.
Additionally, the investigation highlighted that the delay in shutting down the remaining engine and certain procedural deviations contributed to the injury of a passenger during the evacuation.