This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/13/tired-technicians-plane-mixup-engine-fire-inquiry

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Removed: article Tired technicians' plane mixup led to inflight engine fire, inquiry finds
(about 14 hours later)
This article has been taken down as it breached an embargo. It will be relaunched on its correct date. A British Airways plane was forced into an emergency return to Heathrow, flying on one damaged engine with the other ablaze, because tired technicians had been working on the wrong aircraft, investigators have found.
Passengers aboard the London-Oslo flight in May 2013 were left terrified after the covers of both engines blew off seconds after the plane became airborne, leaving fuel streaming from one engine and starting a fire.
One of the two engine covers cut through a fuel pipe and the plane scattered debris – including chunks of metal weighing up to 37kg – across the Heathrow runway.
The Air Accident Investigation Bureau found that the covers of the Airbus A319’s engine, the fan cowls, were left unlatched during maintenance by two technicians who intended to return and top up the oil. When the pair attempted to complete the task three hours later in the night shift, they went back to another plane, an Airbus A321, at a different stand, leaving the A319’s covers open.
Nightshifts and overtime may have left staff “compromised by fatigue”, investigators said. One of the two BA technicians had worked 70 hours over seven consecutive days and nights and was on the second of two 12-hour overtime nightshifts. The open covers were then missed by a pilot and a ground handler in inspections before takeoff.
Crew apparently failed to understand fully what passengers who witnessed the incident were telling them and an initial attempt by a senior cabin crew member to reach the captain was unsuccessful. Investigators found that “information regarding the fuel leak was not assimilated by the cabin crew and not passed to the flight crew as required”.
Almost three tonnes of fuel leaked out of the right engine during the flight around London before the captain shut it down after fire alarms sounded. Investigators also found that the captain risked switching off the wrong engine by not following procedure and confirming his actions to the co-pilot as the plane approached Heathrow again.
The flight, BA762, landed back at Heathrow 33 minutes after takeoff when the 75 passengers and five crew were evacuated via the emergency chutes. No one was injured, although the report found one passenger dropped his wheelie suitcase from the top of the emergency chute, risking injuring rescue services who had rushed to the plane.
The AAIB repeated calls to European safety agencies to demand changes to the aircraft design. After similar, earlier incidents, investigators had recommended that Airbus modify the A320-family aircraft – including the A319 – to electronically alert pilots if the cowl doors were not properly closed.
The idea had been rejected in favour of high-visibility paint on the latches, but investigators found that the paint on this aircraft and others was not properly maintained. Cowl doors had blown off on 34 previous occasions on A320s and on three further occasions since the Heathrow incident. In all cases, the covers were opened before the flight and not correctly resecured.
Investigators called for new guidelines on managing fatigue, with their analysis showing that one technician’s shift pattern doubled the accident risk and meant a “two in five chance that he experienced high levels of sleepiness”.
The AAIB said British Airways should review its pilot and cabin crew training to learn the lessons from relaying the passengers’ and crew’s reports of damage to the plane.
The report said British Airways and Airbus had both taken action to address the issues raised.