Incident Overview
On Wednesday, 25 October 2018 at 05:07 UTC, an Airbus A320-232 aircraft, registration EC-MDZ, operated by Vueling Airlines S.A., was performing the first flight of the day from Bilbao Airport to Barcelona. The aircraft carried 120 persons on board, including 6 crew members (2 pilots and 4 cabin crew). The first officer was the pilot flying, and the captain was the pilot monitoring.
During the takeoff run on runway 12, both fan cowls detached from the left engine. At the moment of rotation, the crew heard an unusual sound, and shortly after takeoff, they received an ECAM LGCIU2 FAULT message. The crew performed the corresponding procedure and decided to continue the flight to Barcelona, where they landed normally on runway 25R at 05:55 UTC.
After landing, the crew began receiving multiple ECAM messages while taxiing to parking. Passengers disembarked normally. The crew was then informed that both fan cowls had detached from the left engine. Fragments from the cowls were found embedded in the left main landing gear leg. There were no injuries to personnel, and the aircraft sustained minor damage from the cowls impacting various parts of the structure.
Maintenance History
On the night of 24-25 October 2018, maintenance work had been performed on the aircraft that required opening and closing the cowls on the left engine. The subsequent investigation identified that the cowls had not been properly closed and latched after this maintenance.
Investigation Findings
The investigation determined that the incident was caused by flying the airplane without closing and properly latching the cowls on the left engine. This was the result of an improper maintenance operation and the incorrect performance of the walk-around check prior to the flight. No safety recommendations were issued.