MD-11 flight crew reported #2 Engine Fire Level 3 Warning on take off. The Flight Crew requested priority handling and dumped fuel. The Flight Crew performed an air turn back and precautionary landing at departure airport.
Synopsis
MD-11 flight crew reported #2 Engine Fire Level 3 Warning on take off. The Flight Crew requested priority handling and dumped fuel. The Flight Crew performed an air turn back and precautionary landing at departure airport.
Narrative
After takeoff and during gear retraction the Engine 2 Fire Level 3 Warning was triggered. I was the Pilot Monitoring (PM) at this time. The Pilot Flying (PF) continued climbing; I requested priority handling and reduced thrust on Engine 2 while the First Officer continued flying. After a slight reduction of thrust the Fire Warning ceased. After leveling the aircraft at 4;000 feet; I took control and became the Pilot Flying. We notified ATC of our situation and requested holding instructions. We assessed the situation and decided that the safest course of action would be to return to ZZZ.In the hold; we dumped fuel (which required constant recalculations since the fuel system was in Manual resulting in the fuel dump not stopping at the FMS Dump To Gross Weight); sent an ACARS to company regarding our situation; and returned to land via ILS7R. The Tower had the emergency vehicles on standby; though we didn't make this request. After making an uneventful landing we proceeded to taxi to our parking gate under normal power. We were alerted by the Engine 2 Fire Warning at approximately 200-300 feet. Possible bleed air leak or fault in the Engine 2 Fire Loop. Reduced thrust on Engine 2; took over as Pilot Flying; requested priority handling; dumped fuel; returned to land. Diligent maintenance corrections. I was told by a Maintenance rep that the Engine Fire warning went off '54' times on a previous leg.
Second reporter narrative
Immediately after rotation on takeoff at approximately 200 feet; a Level 3 Engine 2 fire presented itself for approximately 1 minute. ZZZ Tower was then notified of the situation. As we climbed up to the acceleration altitude and by this time the L3 message had cleared itself after slightly reducing power on the #2 engine. We ran the appropriate QRH checklist ; requested a hold @ ZZZ Vor and finalized our decision to return to ZZZ. We then confirmed permission to dump fuel with the Tower for approximately 15 mins. After dumping was accomplished we returned to ZZZ via the ILS XR approach. A normal landing was accomplished and since there was no more fire indication present. A normal taxi to the gate was conducted. In conclusion; maintenance had detected a hole in the #2 bleed blowing hot air on the A loop fire detector.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.