A Malindo Air Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-600, registration 9M-LMH performing flight OD-1804 from Kuala Lumpur Subang to Kuala Terengganu (Malaysia), was climbing out of Subang Airport's runway 33 when the crew stopped the climb at 7000 feet reporting the left hand engine (PW127M) on fire. The crew shut the engine down, discharged the fire suppression systems and extinguished the fire. The aircraft returned to Subang for a safe landing on runway 15 about 17 minutes after departure.
The aircraft was carrying the soccer team of Terrengganu, the team's midfielder tweeted the photo below.
The airline confirmed one of the aircraft's engines caught fire soon after takeoff, the engine was shut down and discharged the engine's fire bottles. The aircraft returned to Subang Airport, there were no injuries. The passengers took another flight leaving about 2.5 hours later.
Malaysia's DGCA released their final report concuding the probable causes of the serious incident were:
The probable cause of the engine fire was due to the leakage from the No.6 position fuel nozzle adapter secondary manifold fitting.
The DGCA described the sequence of events:
During climbing at 7,000ft with the Captain on the flight controls, the Master Warning Engine 1 Fire came on. The Captain initiated a procedure as per checklist and co-pilot transmitted a mayday call. Captain requested Air Traffic Controller Tower for emergency landing at SZB airport and it was accepted immediately. The passengers were informed about the problem and asked to be seated.
Both fire agents were discharged and after few minutes there was no visible fire persist. The pilot started to descent with the single engine in operation and carried out procedure as per checklist. The no.1 engine was secured. The aircraft was configured as per normal for single engine landing.
Aircraft landed safely with fire rescue on standby on taxiway.
Captain was informed by the cabin crew and control tower that there was no visible fire and was asked to taxi to the bay.
No evacuation was required and passenger disembarked normally after confirmation of no visible fire. No passenger and crews were injured in the incident.
Both engines had accumulated 1,934 hours and 2243 cycles since new. The DGCA stated: "The aircraft had undergone a 4A Check at TSN 1,832:48hrs and CSN 2,123 cycles at Airod Hangar. The last activity done on the aircraft is a replacement of 14 fuel nozzles at No.1 engine. This is a scheduled change as per maintenance schedule at every 1000H interval. The task was performed prior the said flight OD1804 SZB-TGG that the same day in the early morning, around 0030hrs."
The investigation found:
The engine fire was due to the fuel leakage from the No. 6 position fuel nozzle adapter secondary manifold fitting. The fitting was discovered at a torque significantly below the specified value. At specified torque the fitting displayed no leakage.
The leakage of the flow divider valve was determined to be due to fire and heat damage resultant from the event.
No other conditions were observed that would contribute to fuel leakage or engine external fire.