‘Sinister Sunday’ strikes PIA
November 19, 2012
LAHORE: The national flag carrier had a ‘sinister Sunday’ after a complete floor of its regional office was burnt to ashes and its aircraft engines malfunctioned. As a result, two of its international flights were forced to make emergency landings.
The two flights were PK-787 Karachi-London and PK-3338 Jeddah-Lahore. The PK-787 was an A310 aircraft, while the PK-3338 was a Boeing-747. Both aircraft faced a mid-air engine failure. The A310 aircraft was grounded after the initial engineering evaluation report stated an internal fault due to backfiring.
Backfiring is a situation where unburned fuel makes it beyond the combustion chamber of an engine and catches fire. It can be dangerous in scenarios where it gives way to probable engine explosions, which are highly dangerous as engines are directly below the aircraft wings which house fuel. Although, it is argued that jet engines don’t “backfire” they “surge”. This is technically called as “compressor stall”, a situation of abnormal airflow resulting from a stall of the aerofoil within the compressor of a jet engine; this could have been the case with this engine as well.
Sources in the PIA Engineering revealed that the aircraft’s engine was in perfect working condition prior to the flight and in the engineering logs, the engines had substantial flight hours left. However, after the flight PK-787 Karachi-London took off, engine number 1 of the A310 aircraft backfired twice which resulted in engine malfunction. The pilot did not take any chances and shut down the malfunctioning engine reporting a ‘May-Day’ call which is only done in vulnerable circumstances. After shutting down the faulty engine, the pilot successfully landed the aircraft back at the Jinnah International Airport, where emergency had already been declared, saving the lives of 167 on-board passengers.
The initial trouble-shooting report of the PIA Engineering revealed that it was not just a case of usual unburned fuel but the engine had developed a serious internal fault that had also heated the engine up to dangerous proportions. Sources also revealed that this aircraft will be grounded and its functioning engine might be cannibalised to another awaiting aircraft.
The PIA spokesperson denied any incident where the engine caught fire. He said the Airbus A310 was airborne for about 55 minutes. Capt Ahmed Saeed noticed that one of the two engines malfunctioned and the safety procedure demanded that the aircraft be landed back. The pilot skilfully made a safe landing at Karachi. The Airbus is designed to safely take off and land back on one engine. The PIA management announced a medal for the operating pilot for his professionalism and for following the safety procedures.
In a similar incident, another flight PK-3338 Jeddah-Lahore was diverted to Karachi after one of its engines malfunctioned during the flight. The pilot adopted a similar approach and had to shut down the troubling engine. Calling in for ‘May-Day’ on this stage too, the pilot of the 747 aircraft requested for an emergency landing at the Karachi airport, instead of continuing the original route to Lahore. According to the initial evaluation of the aircraft and the fault reported by the pilot, one of the engines’ vibration reading was off-the-charts and there was a possibility of its becoming worse, therefore, the pilot made a decision not to take a chance.
The exact fault of the 747 aircraft had not been detected till the filing of the report, as the initial engineering evaluation had not taken place.While all this was going on, the PIA’s regional Lahore office caught fire. As it was an off-day, nobody was injured in the fire. Rana Hammad and Tallat Mahmood, two of the PIA employees, coincidently went to the second floor and noticed the smoke and fire.
Rescue 1122 was called in and the PIA emergency staff participated with them in extinguishing the fire. However, the entire second floor was burnt to ashes. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained and the estimated damages are estimated at around Rs3-4 million.
The two flights were PK-787 Karachi-London and PK-3338 Jeddah-Lahore. The PK-787 was an A310 aircraft, while the PK-3338 was a Boeing-747. Both aircraft faced a mid-air engine failure. The A310 aircraft was grounded after the initial engineering evaluation report stated an internal fault due to backfiring.
Backfiring is a situation where unburned fuel makes it beyond the combustion chamber of an engine and catches fire. It can be dangerous in scenarios where it gives way to probable engine explosions, which are highly dangerous as engines are directly below the aircraft wings which house fuel. Although, it is argued that jet engines don’t “backfire” they “surge”. This is technically called as “compressor stall”, a situation of abnormal airflow resulting from a stall of the aerofoil within the compressor of a jet engine; this could have been the case with this engine as well.
Sources in the PIA Engineering revealed that the aircraft’s engine was in perfect working condition prior to the flight and in the engineering logs, the engines had substantial flight hours left. However, after the flight PK-787 Karachi-London took off, engine number 1 of the A310 aircraft backfired twice which resulted in engine malfunction. The pilot did not take any chances and shut down the malfunctioning engine reporting a ‘May-Day’ call which is only done in vulnerable circumstances. After shutting down the faulty engine, the pilot successfully landed the aircraft back at the Jinnah International Airport, where emergency had already been declared, saving the lives of 167 on-board passengers.
The initial trouble-shooting report of the PIA Engineering revealed that it was not just a case of usual unburned fuel but the engine had developed a serious internal fault that had also heated the engine up to dangerous proportions. Sources also revealed that this aircraft will be grounded and its functioning engine might be cannibalised to another awaiting aircraft.
The PIA spokesperson denied any incident where the engine caught fire. He said the Airbus A310 was airborne for about 55 minutes. Capt Ahmed Saeed noticed that one of the two engines malfunctioned and the safety procedure demanded that the aircraft be landed back. The pilot skilfully made a safe landing at Karachi. The Airbus is designed to safely take off and land back on one engine. The PIA management announced a medal for the operating pilot for his professionalism and for following the safety procedures.
In a similar incident, another flight PK-3338 Jeddah-Lahore was diverted to Karachi after one of its engines malfunctioned during the flight. The pilot adopted a similar approach and had to shut down the troubling engine. Calling in for ‘May-Day’ on this stage too, the pilot of the 747 aircraft requested for an emergency landing at the Karachi airport, instead of continuing the original route to Lahore. According to the initial evaluation of the aircraft and the fault reported by the pilot, one of the engines’ vibration reading was off-the-charts and there was a possibility of its becoming worse, therefore, the pilot made a decision not to take a chance.
The exact fault of the 747 aircraft had not been detected till the filing of the report, as the initial engineering evaluation had not taken place.While all this was going on, the PIA’s regional Lahore office caught fire. As it was an off-day, nobody was injured in the fire. Rana Hammad and Tallat Mahmood, two of the PIA employees, coincidently went to the second floor and noticed the smoke and fire.
Rescue 1122 was called in and the PIA emergency staff participated with them in extinguishing the fire. However, the entire second floor was burnt to ashes. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained and the estimated damages are estimated at around Rs3-4 million.
