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What: American Airlines MD-82 aircraft en route from Lambert to Chicago
Where: Lambert
When: Sept. 28, 2007
Who: 138 passengers, 3 flight attendants, two pilots
Why: When the fight experienced an emergency (engine fire) and the MD-82 returned to land at the airport of origin, the nose landing gear failed. After a go-around, the plane conducted an emergency landing and everyone debarked on to the runway.
The reason that this is in the news now is that the problems involved have been under investigation. The procedure that mechanics used to manually start one of the engines is held to be responsible for the fire. However the captain was also faulted for poor division of labor, resulting in inefficiency which is judged to have exacerbated the emergency.
NTSB Identification: DCA07MA310
Scheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of AMERICAN AIRLINES
Accident occurred Friday, September 28, 2007 in St. Louis, MO
Aircraft: McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82 (MD-82), registration: N454AA
Injuries: 143 Uninjured.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.
On September 28, 2007, at 1316 central daylight time, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82 (MD-82), N454AA, operated by American Airlines as flight 1400, executed an emergeny landing at Lambert-St Louis International Airport (STL), St. Louis, Missouri, after the flight crew received a left engine fire warning during departure climb from the airport. The airplane sustained substantial damage. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and an instrument flight rules flight plan was filed for the 14 CFR Part 121 scheduled domestic flight. After landing, the 2 flight crew, 3 flight attendants, and 138 passengers deplaned via airstairs and no occupant injuries were reported. The intended destination of the flight was Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, Illinois.
Upon receiving the left engine fire warning during climb, the flight crew discharged the aircraft engine fire bottles into the affected engine. During the visual return and single-engine approach to the airport, the nose landing gear did not extend. The flight crew then extended the nose landing gear using the emergency landing gear extension procedure. The airplane returned and then landed on runway 30L (11,019 feet by 200 feet, grooved concrete) and was met by STL Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Vehicles
The NTSB identification number for this investigation was administratively changed from CHI07MA310 to DCA07MA310 on April 2, 2008.
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