What happened
On June 29, 2005, at approximately 22:32 local time, a Fly Air Airbus A300-B4, registration TC-FLF, was accelerating for take-off from runway 36L at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. During the take-off roll, an explosion was heard from the left side of the aircraft, and the engine instruments for the left engine immediately dropped to zero. The flight crew responded by rejecting the take-off at a speed of 142 knots.
Following the event, the aircraft was brought to a halt, and the fire brigade was called to perform cooling operations on the brakes and tires. While the crew initially reported seeing an animal jump into the engine, subsequent investigations focused on the physical damage to the propulsion system.
The investigation
The Dutch Safety Board conducted a detailed examination of the left-hand General Electric CF6-50C2 engine. The investigation included visual inspections, borescope examinations, and metallurgical failure analysis. Investigators looked for evidence of foreign object damage (FOD), specifically searching for organic remains such as blood or feathers that might indicate bird ingestion.
Physical inspections revealed that the engine had suffered severe damage. A portion of a fan blade had separated from the rotor, and the resulting debris had penetrated the acoustic panels and the engine cowling. The investigation also noted that the aircraft fuselage sustained minor dents due to the uncontained nature of the failure.
Findings
- The failure was an uncontained engine failure involving the separation of a fan blade.
- The investigation found that the left engine's fan blade number 1 had broken off just below the mid-span shroud area.
- While the crew initially suspected bird ingestion, no visible organic residue, feathers, or blood were found during the inspections.
- The damage pattern to the remaining fan blades was consistent with the ingestion of a soft-body object, such as a small bird, which caused a localized stress concentration leading to the blade fracture.