Air India Flight 132 – Air accident where there was a detachment of the engine of the left wing of the plane, as a result of poor maintenance.
Summary
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- 1 History
- 2 Accident
- 3 After the accident
- 4 Research
- 5 Sources
History
The October of Mayo of 1990 , at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in India , it is expected Boeing 747-237B of the airline Air India named Emperor Vikramaditya and registration VT-EBO, from the London-Heathrow Airport the city of London , England , with final destination to Delhi .
Accident
At the time of landing, a problem arises when activating the reversers to reduce the power of the Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7J engines, the No.1 engine located on the left detaches from its base, causing a fire due to the hot steam .
Inside the plane the pilots order their 14 flight attendants to prepare their 195 passengers for a dangerous emergency landing, while on the ground all incoming and outgoing traffic is closed, while it is about stopping the plane .
Finally the slides are deployed , and the passengers can be evacuated, later with a count it was found that the loss of human lives was not lamented.
After the accident
After the incident, the Boeing 747 is reviewed and it is found that the damage suffered to the left wing as a result of the fire was very large, and a complete repair would be very expensive, so it was decided to declare the plane as a total loss, it was removed from the track to be sold and later made pieces.
Investigation
The local authorities and Air India , together with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), are responsible for carrying out the investigations, and it is found that the pins were split and deformed, in the part where the engine had detached.
The engine mounts of a 747 are three, each of them is fastened with a kind of rivet- type plug , which is secured on one side with a screw cap that must be adjusted perfectly, in order to avoid the vibration of the engine. engine in full operation.
Apparently and according to the examination made by means of an electron microscope there was a microfracture that affected the latch that was held by the pin of the internal motor of the left wing, which with the vibration of the motor became bigger and bigger with each flight, until reaching the breaking point, thus leaving an uneven weight to the other peg that did not support as much stress during landing and ended up giving way.
It is also found that the maintenance carried out recently to the motors was inadequate since the connection pins to the supports were incorrectly installed, thus causing the gradual drop in the load capacity of the motors and the unexpected outcome.
