Eastern Air Lines Flight 855
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| Occurrence summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 5 May 1983 |
| Summary | Engine failure |
| Passengers | 162 |
| Crew | 10 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Survivors | 172(all) |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1 |
| Operator | Eastern Air Lines |
| Registration | N334EA |
| Flight origin | Miami International Airport |
| Destination | Nassau International Airport |
Eastern Air Lines Flight 855 was an air incident near Miami, Florida on May 5, 1983. En route from Miami International Airport to Nassau International Airport, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, registration N334EA, experienced the loss of all three engines. The flight crew succeeded in restarting one engine in time to safely land the aircraft at Miami International Airport.
The incident
Eastern Air Lines Flight 855 took off from Miami International Airport at 08:56 on a flight to Nassau International Airport in the Bahamas carrying 162 passengers and 10 crew. At 09:15, while descending through 15,000 feet, an indicator lit to warn of low oil pressure on the TriStar's #2 engine. This engine was shut down by the flight crew. Due to the worsening weather conditions over Nassau,[1] the crew elected to return to Miami to land, and received a clearance back to Miami, as well as instructions to begin a climb to FL 200 (20,000 feet).
En route back to Miami, low oil pressure lights for engines 1 and 3 illuminated. At 09:28, at an altitude of 16,000 feet, engine 3 flamed out. At 09:33, engine 1 flamed out. While the flight crew attempted to restart engine 2, cabin lights went off and flight deck instruments stopped working. The aircraft descended without power from about 13,000 feet to about 4,000 feet, at which point the crew successfully restarted engine 2 and executed a landing at Miami. None of the 172 passengers and crew aboard was injured in the incident.
Cause
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was "the omission of all the O-ring seals on the master chip detector assemblies leading to the loss of lubrication and damage to the airplane's three engines as a result of the failure of mechanics to follow the established and proper procedures for the installation of master chip detectors in the engine lubrication system, the repeated failure of supervisory personnel to require mechanics to comply strictly with the prescribed installation procedures, and the failure of Eastern Air Lines management to assess adequately the significance of similar previous occurrences and to act effectively to institute corrective action. Contributing to the cause of the accident was the failure of Federal Aviation Administration maintenance inspectors to assess the significance of the incidents involving master chip detectors and to take effective surveillance and enforcement measures to prevent the recurrence of the incidents."
References
- ^ [[Steve Thompson[[{{subst:DATE}}|{{subst:DATE}}]] [disambiguation needed]|Thompson, Steve]], The Story of Eastern Flight 855 - Pilot's first hand account of incident, retrieved 2011-02-12
External links
- Airline Safety Network Airline Safety Network - Aircraft accident Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1 N334EA Miami International Airport, FL (MIA)
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Summary Report Eastern Airlines, INC., Lockheed L-1011, N334EA (HTML)
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Report Eastern Airlines, INC., Lockheed L-1011, N334EA (HTML)
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Report Eastern Airlines, INC., Lockheed L-1011, N334EA (PDF)
- Airliners.net Photos of Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar aircraft
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