Dynamic Airways Flight 405

Dynamic Airways Flight 405

The aircraft registration N251MY in 2007 in MaxJet livery
Incident summary
Date	29 October 2015 (2015-10-29)
Summary	Aircraft fire following suspected fuel leak. Under investigation.
Site	Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport, Florida, United States
Passengers	90
Crew	11
Injuries (non-fatal)	22
Fatalities	0
Survivors	101 (all)
Aircraft type	Boeing 767-269ER
Operator	Dynamic Airways
Registration	N251MY
Flight origin	Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport, Florida, United States
Destination	Caracas International Airport, Maiquetía, Venezuela

Dynamic International Airways Flight 405 was a Dynamic Airways Boeing 767-269ER performing a scheduled international passenger flight from Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport to Caracas International Airport, that suffered an engine fire while taxiing for departure on October 29, 2015.

Incident

Flight 405 caught fire while taxiing for departure at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The aircraft was leaking fuel shortly before it caught fire, according to the pilots of an aircraft that was following Flight 405.^[1] All passengers and crew evacuated the aircraft. Fifteen were taken to a local hospital to be treated for injuries.^[1] The airport's two runways were closed. The south runway reopened around 3:20 PM.^[1]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the incident (c/n 23280) was a Boeing 767-269ER with registration N251MY. The 131st Boeing 767 built, it first flew on January 30, 1986 and was originally purchased in Japan, but the deal was never taken up, and the aircraft was delivered to Kuwait Airways approximately seven weeks later. While owned by Kuwait Airways, the airframe was leased at times to EgyptAir, Qatar Airways and Polynesian Airlines.

In 1995, Kuwait Airways sold the airframe to Birgenair, which subsequently leased the airframe to Alas Nacionales and LAN Airlines. Following the collapse of Birgenair shortly after the crash of Birgenair Flight 301, Air Gabon acquired the airframe for two years until its acquisition by First Security Corporation (now part of Wells Fargo) in 1999. The plane was then stored for the next five years out of service until United Arab Emirates-based Phoenix Aviation (later AVE.com) purchased the frame from Wells Fargo in 2004, leasing it to Kam Air in early 2004.

Current owner KMW Leasing of Las Vegas, Nevada acquired the plane from AVE.com in June 2006, who subsequently leased the airframe on a "power by the hour" basis to MaxJet, Sunny Airways, and Dynamic Airways. Despite its age of nearly 30 years, as of October 6, 2015, the airframe had only flown for 29,970 hours over 9,937 flight cycles. Previous to being leased by Dynamic Airways, the aircraft was in dry storage for approximately 29 months. Dynamic had only logged 240 hours during the six-week period prior to the fire at Fort Lauderdale.^[2]

Investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation.^[1] On November 3, 2015, the NTSB released an update to its ongoing investigation, which stated that they found that the main fuel supply line coupling assembly had disconnected in the wing-to-engine strut above and behind the left engine.^[3] Examination of the left engine revealed no evidence of an engine uncontainment or other failure. Also, the lower inboard portion of the left wing, left engine cowling, and left fuselage center section sustained thermal damage. The fire did not penetrate the fuselage. The report condemned some passengers for taking their luggage.

References