Created Sunday, May 19th 2024 11:46Z, last updated Wednesday, Jul 10th 2024 16:37Z
An Air India Express Airbus A320-200, registration VT-ATF performing flight
IX-1132 from Bangalore to Kochi (India) with 179 passengers and 6 crew on board, was climbing out of Bangalore's runway 27R when the right hand engine (CFM56) caught fire. The crew stopped the climb at 6000 feet, worked the related checklists including shutting the engine down and discharging the fire extinguishers while returning to Bangalore but was unable to extinguish the fire. The aircraft landed back on Bangalore's runway 27L about 12 minutes after departure, vacated the runway with flames out of the right hand engine throughout and stopped clear of the runway. An emergency evacuation was initiated while fire fighters put the fire of the right hand engine out. There were no injuries.
The airport reported the crew reported an engine fire, the aircraft returned to Bangalore, ground services saw still flames, hence all 179 passengers and 6 crew were safely evacuated.
On Jun 4th 2024 India's AAIB reported that after takeoff a stall and fire in the #2 engine occurred. The crew carried out the checklist items and returned to Bangalore. The occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated by the AAIB.
On Jul 10th 2024 India's AAIB released their preliminary report rating the occurrence a serious incident and summarizing the sequence of events:
On 18.05.2024 Air India express scheduled flight No AIX – 1182 took off from Kempegowda International airport Bengaluru at 1732 UTC for Cochin International Airport on VT – ATF aircraft. The aircraft had total 185 POB including 06 crew members. While the aircraft was on its initial climb the crew heard a bang sound from the right side of the aircraft. The crew also noticed small fluctuation in N1 RPM of No.2 engine and yellow hydraulic System fault momentarily. The no.2 engine stall warning also came on momentarily and went off. The cabin crew on the R2 informed the crew on intercom about fire on right side of the aircraft/engine; however, the crew did not get any warning or indication of fire on the flight deck. The PIC and PM discussed the situation and decided to return back to Bengaluru airport. In view of the fire “MAY DAY” was declared by the PIC and a safe landing was executed at Bengaluru international Airport in coordination with the air traffic services. As per the crew statements both the fire extinguishers were operated to extinguish the fire after landing but the fire still persisted. After the aircraft exited the runway and stopped at link ‘H’ the Crash Fire tenders (CFT) discharged the foam into the engine and extinguished the fire. The crew ordered emergency evacuation of the passengers. All the four slides were deployed by the cabin crew and all the passengers and crews exited from the aircraft safely. 10 passengers suffered minor injuries during exiting from the slides. Injured passengers were treated at the local hospital and were declared fit for travel. Post landing the engine oil quantity in the cockpit indicated 17.5 Quarts on No.1 engine and 7.5 Quarts on No.2 engine.
The AAIB reported with respect to the initial damage assessment:
There was no evidence of any damage to the aircraft or No.2 aero engine during visual examination, however during the Boroscopic examination of the engine No.2 presence of magnetic chips on magnetic chip detector, metallic strands on No.3 scavenge screen plugs filter were found. High pressure turbine (HPT) aft blade strainer outer seal was found dislodged from the position.
Passenger seeing the right hand engine after landing:
