Investigators focusing on engine systems in airliner fire

By Pashtana Usufzy

Published Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015 | 10:19 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015 | 1:50 p.m.

Federal investigators will focus on engine systems to determine what caused a British Airways jet to catch fire Tuesday as it prepared to take off from the Las Vegas airport, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Officials today, meanwhile, revised the number of people transported to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and other area hospitals from 14 to 27.

The plane’s left engine caught fire as the plane accelerated down the runway, forcing the pilot to abort the takeoff and 157 passengers and 13 crew members to evacuate the Boeing 777-200 airliner, authorities said.

Most of the injuries resulted from passengers escaping down emergency slides, officials said. Some passengers suffered smoke inhalation, which may have exacerbated previous conditions, Clark County Fire Chief Greg Cassell said.

All passengers have since been treated and released, according to British Airways.

The NTSB said investigators — four systems specialists and a fire expert — were expected to depart for Las Vegas today.

“They’re looking at the engine systems and what we can tell from the way the fire worked,” NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said.

The investigation has three parts: an on-scene phase, a fact-gathering phase and a determination of probable cause.

An initial report containing facts gathered from witness interviews, the history of the flight and physical damage is generally released within a few weeks. A final report including the likely cause of the fire could take a year or more.

"Our investigations are very in-depth, and it could take a long time to follow every lead," Weiss said.

Traffic at McCarran International Airport, meanwhile, has largely returned to normal.

A ground hold on flights headed to Las Vegas was lifted Tuesday night, and the runway where the plane caught fire reopened just after midnight, officials said.

There were no significant delays at the airport this morning, McCarran spokeswoman Christine Crews said.

The plane was going about 100 mph when the crew slammed on the brakes to abort the takeoff, Clark County Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Training Officer Bill Hutfilz said. There were no tire or brake fires, he said.

The slides on the plane “functioned flawlessly,” Hutfilz said.

Some passengers exited from slides on the side of the plane where the fire was located, which could be dangerous, Fire Capt. Mike Atchley said. But overall, the plane’s crew did a great job evacuating the plane, fire department officials said.

“We saw the flight crew afterward,” Cassell said. “We congratulated them and we shook all their hands, thanked them so much for what they did, for their great evacuation of that aircraft and keeping their passengers and customers safe.”

Clark County firefighters at the airport were notified of the fire at 4:13 p.m. and were pouring water and foam on the blaze within two minutes, Crews said. It took about three minutes to put out the fire, she said.

A total of 53 firefighters responded to the fire, including some from other stations, Hutfilz said.

Atchley, who was one of the first responders, described the fire as the first “of this magnitude” at McCarran.

Plane windows near the fire were scorched, and there was some interior damage near the front of the plane, but firefighters extinguished the flames before they could extend very far inside. The fire reached within feet of a major fuel tank, he said.

“We were very fortunate that we were able to knock it down within a minute, because if it went interior, it would have been a totally different situation,” he said. "It could have been terrible. It could have been horrific.”