Created Thursday, May 27th 2021 17:53Z, last updated Friday, Jan 20th 2023 18:01Z
A TUI Airlines Belgium Boeing 737-700, registration OO-JAO performing flight
TB-2182 from Thira (Greece) to Brussels (Belgium) with 80 people on board, was enroute at FL400 about 70nm west of Belgrade (Serbia) when the crew shut the left hand engine (CFM56) down due to loss of oil pressure and diverted to Belgrade for a safe landing on runway 12 about 25 minutes later.
The aircraft remained on the ground in Belgrade for about 71 hours, then positioned to Brussels and resumed service the following morning of May 31st 2021.
On Jun 9th 2021 Serbia's Civil Aviation Authority reported the occurrence was rated a serious incident and opened an investigation. When the aircraft contacted Belgrade Control about 50 minutes into the flight from Thira, the crew advised they had a low oil quantity indication on the left hand engine, however, oil pressure and temperature remained normal. About 20 minutes later the oil pressure in the left hand engine began to drop prompting the crew to check the weather conditions of nearby airports and decide to divert to Belgrade. About 5 minutes into the descent towards Belgrade the oil pressure fell below the limits prompting the crew to shut the engine down. The aircraft continued to Belgrade for a safe single engine landing. A post flight inspection revealed an oil leak as well as damage to the left hand engine's starter.
Serbia's Civil Aviation Administration released their final report in Serbian only (Editorial note: to serve the purpose of global prevention of the repeat of causes leading to an occurrence an additional timely release of all occurrence reports in the only world spanning aviation language English would be necessary, a Serbian only release does not achieve this purpose as set by ICAO annex 13 and just forces many aviators to waste much more time and effort each in trying to understand the circumstances leading to the occurrence. Aviators operating internationally are required to read/speak English besides their local language, investigators need to be able to read/write/speak English to communicate with their counterparts all around the globe).
The report concludes:
Immediate Cause:
During operation of the engine the starter is exposed to the load that passes through the bolts. Due to normal variations of the material properties of the screw a crack developed in the body of the screw, which caused broken bolts, the shut off of the starter, loss of oil and oil pressure leading to the shut down of the engine.
Indirect Cause:
Poor strength and fatigue resistance of the materials of the main casing screws installed on the starter.
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