Serious incident McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N944AS,
ASN logo
ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 370283
 
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information. If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.

Date:Sunday 20 August 2006
Time:18:09 LT
Type:Silhouette image of generic MD83 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different    
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
Owner/operator:Alaska Airlines
Registration: N944AS
MSN: 53019
Engine model:Pratt and Whitney JT8D
Fatalities:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 145
Aircraft damage: Minor
Category:Serious incident
Location:Long Beach, CA -   United States of America
Phase: Taxi
Nature:Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:Seattle/Tacoma International Airport, WA (SEA/KSEA)
Destination airport:Long Beach Airport, CA (LGB/KLGB)
Investigating agency: NTSB
Confidence Rating: Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Narrative:
While taxiing to parking following a normal landing, the cabin crew notified the flight crew that an electrical smelling smoke was engulfing the cabin area. The flight crew simultaneously heard circuit breakers popping and cabin chimes sounding. The flight crew decided that at an immediate evacuation was necessary, and stopped the airplane. The order was given to the cabin crew to deploy the emergency slides and evacuate the passengers. All emergency slides were deployed; there were no injuries incurred during the evacuation. Maintenance personnel noted minor damage to the airplane as a result of a chaffed wire bundle in the mid-cargo pit ceiling at station 750 that had arced and produced smoke in the cabin area. The area was identified as a Boeing-designed and retrofitted over wing heater wiring installation. Engineers for the operator and manufacturer of the airplane determined that arcing was likely due to the left and right over wing heater blanket wiring, that contacted the edge of the wire bundle bracket that attached to the second inboard lighting hole at station 750 in the mid-cargo pit ceiling on the left side. They also determined that the vibration through normal airplane operation allowed the bracket to cut through the wire insulation and then contact was made to the wire conductor and arcing occurred. The operator inspected their entire fleet of affected airplanes and noted one other wire bundle discrepancy. The manufacturer of the airplane identified one other operator with a similar configuration. A service bulletin was issued identifying the problem and provided instructions on adjusting the wire bundles in order to prevent future occurrences.

Probable Cause: The over wing heater blanket wiring installation that had chaffed and arced, which produced an electrical smell in the cabin area.

Accident investigation:
cover
  
Investigating agency: NTSB
Report number: LAX06IA301
Status: Investigation completed
Duration: 1 year and 4 months
Download report: Final report

Sources:

NTSB LAX06IA301

Location

Revision history:

Date/timeContributorUpdates
25-Mar-2024 09:02 ASN Update Bot Added

Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description

The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:

CONNECT WITH US: FSF on social media FSF Facebook FSF Twitter FSF Youtube FSF LinkedIn FSF Instagram

©2024 Flight Safety Foundation

1920 Ballenger Av, 4th Fl.
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
www.FlightSafety.org