Preliminary NTSB report details fire-but-safe situation during emergency landing of Frontier Airlines plane

Preliminary NTSB report details fire-but-safe situation during emergency landing of Frontier Airlines plane

2024-10-29 23:43:36 :

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal investigators say a Frontier Airlines plane made an emergency landing in Las Vegas earlier this month when an electrical system malfunctioned and the autopilot disengaged. , some radio communications were interrupted.

None of the 190 passengers and seven crew members aboard Flight 1326, which took off from San Diego on Oct. 5, were injured, according to a preliminary report released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Federal investigators said the cockpit crew put on oxygen masks and declared an emergency about 19 minutes before landing after the crew detected smoke from burning rubber, chemicals or light smoke. The National Transportation Safety Board said the display, radio and transponder stopped working while the pilot and co-pilot were performing emergency procedures.

The Airbus A321-211 caught fire as it landed at 3:10 p.m., bursting its tires and trailing thick smoke on the runway at Harry Reid International Airport, witnesses said. But the fire was quickly extinguished by firefighters. Passengers were not immediately evacuated.

Video recordings and photos included in the report showed flames and smoke billowing from the main landing gear before the plane came to a stop on the runway. Damage was limited to the landing gear, wheels, tires and brakes, the report said.

Crew members said they were surprised when they learned from firefighters that the fire in the right engine had been extinguished. “There were no signs of engine fire in the cockpit,” the report said.

Around the same time the odor was detected, aircraft data monitors detected a fault with a fan that cools the aircraft’s control systems, according to the report.

After power was cut off in accordance with emergency procedures, the flight data recorder stopped recording about nine minutes before the plane landed, but the cockpit voice recorder remained operational. The NTSB in Washington is studying both devices. The final report may take about a year to complete.

KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reports that several passengers have filed a lawsuit against Frontier Airlines, claiming they were “trapped inside a stuffy, smoke-filled plane for nearly an hour” before being evacuated.

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