A332, en-route, Central African Republic, 2020

A332, en-route, Central African Republic, 2020

Summary

On 31 December 2020, an Airbus A330-200 identified a fuel leak during a routine top-of-climb check but instead of following the prescribed engine shutdown and leak isolation procedure and then landing as soon as possible, the crew had continued on track until diverting to N’Djaména over 90 minutes later by which time nearly six tonnes of fuel was missing. The leak was caused by an incorrectly assembled connection at the pylon/engine interface. The flight crew’s procedural non-compliance was identified as having introduced an avoidable fire risk and been indicative of a systemically weak safety culture at the airline concerned.

Description

On 31 December 2020 , the crew of an Airbus A330-200 (F-GZCJ) being operated by Air France on a scheduled night international passenger flight from Brazzaville to Paris CDG with augmented crew in unspecified flight conditions identified a significant fuel leak during a routine top-of-climb fuel check. The applicable emergency procedure to shut down the affected engine and land as soon as possible was ignored. Instead the flight was continued on track for over 90 minutes before eventually diverting to N’Djaména where it was found that almost 6 tonnes of fuel had been lost. The aircraft was undamaged and the 147 occupants were not injured. The leak was sourced to a mis-fitted main fuel hose at the engine/pylon interface.  

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