Investigators Find Signs Bird Strike
May Have Caused Crash of Flight 587
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREETJOURNAL
Investigators examining one of the separated engines from American
Airlines Flight 587 found foreign debris inside, indicating that the engine
may have ingested a flock of birds and then caught on fire.
The engine burned internally, people close to the investigation said.
But its parts appeared intact, except for the damage from what is known in
aviation as ``foreign object debris,'' or ``FOD.'' That would suggest that
the engine didn't suffer a catastrophic failure from some mechanical
breakdown, but from sucking in birds, these people said.
Bird strikes aren't uncommon, especially at seaside airports like New
York's Kennedy International Airport. Airports, including Kennedy, have
programs trying to keep birds clear of runway areas. But typically even if
ingesting birds causes an engine to fail, a twin-engine plane like the A300
can fly on its remaining engine. In simulators, pilots repeatedly practice the tricky maneuvers to keep planes under control when they lose an engine
at takeoff, the most critical time for an engine failure. See full coverage of the
crash.
In this case, people close to the investigation see the finding of
foreign debris in the engine as the start of a chain of events. Most
likely, the burning, damaged engine somehow caused damage to other parts of
the plane. Because debris has been found at various locations in Queens, it
is clear that pieces of the plane came apart in flight. Another possibility, these people suggested, is that both engines possibly suffered
bird strikes.
Witnesses reported seeing the plane's left engine on fire, then fall off
the plane. The wing appeared to be on fire as well, witnesses said, most
likely because of ruptured fuel lines or fuel tanks. Engines are designed
to shear off a plane if forces on them become great so that they break away
before tearing the wing off. But an engine breaking away can itself damage
a plane if pieces hit the fuselage, wing or tail.
The National Transportation Safety Board says the cockpit voice recorder
recovered from the wreckage shows that the pilots encountered an
aviation-related problem, and not some act of terrorism. The NTSB has yet
to say what problem the pilots were talking about, however.
Write to Scott McCartney at
scott.mcartney@wsj.com |
