RJ85, en-route, near Musina South Africa, 2017

RJ85, en-route, near Musina South Africa, 2017

Summary

On 8 November 2017, an Avro RJ85 in cruise after just crossing into South African airspace from Zimbabwe suddenly experienced the apparently simultaneous failure of both left hand engines. After reviewing their situation, it was decided to continue to Johannesburg and this was achieved without further event. The Investigation found that the initiating failure was that of the number 2 (inner) engine which failed mechanically as a consequence of maintenance error but that this failure was uncontained and turbine debris from the number 2 hit the number 1 engine FADEC box and caused that engine to shut down too.

Description

On 8 November 2017, an LF 507-1F engined Avro RJ85 (ZS-ASW) being operated by Airlink on a scheduled international passenger flight from Harare to Johannesburg as LNK103 was in the cruise at FL340 in day VMC when there was a sudden loud bang and a yaw to the right immediately afterwards. Flight deck indications showed that both left side engines (outer number 1 and inner number 2) had failed. The crew followed the prescribed procedures and a MAYDAY was declared to ATC. After assessing the situation it was decided to continue to destination and this was accomplished without further event and there were no injuries to any of the 38 occupants.

The two damaged engines - number 2 (left) and number 1 (right)

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the South African CAA Accident and Incident Investigation Division (AIID). Relevant recorded flight data was available from both the SSFDR and the SSCVR.

It was noted that the 36 year-old Captain had a total of 8,895 hours flying experience of which 7,035 hours were on type and the 29 year-old First Officer had a total of 4,157 hours flying experience of which just 81 hours were on type.

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