Extended Footage: British Airways Engine Fire at McCarran Airport (September 2015)

This video provides additional surveillance camera footage of the British Airways engine fire at McCarran Airport on September 8, 2015. British Airways 2276 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Las Vegas, Nevada to London, England. On September 8, 2015, “G-VIIO” - the aircraft operating the flight - suffered an uncontained left engine failure and subsequent fire during its takeoff roll from Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport, prompting an immediate abort and surprisingly-less-immediate evacuation onto the runway.

The aircraft, bound for Gatwick Airport (near London) had 157 passengers and 13 crew on board. Fourteen people were injured during the evacuation, though none seriously.

Repairs to the aircraft were completed in February 2016 and it was returned to passenger service on March 24, 2016.

As this video dramatically highlights, airport rescue and firefighting (“ARFF”) units responded rapidly to this incident. McCarran is an ARFF Index E airport, a designation which governs the number and type of apparatus that must be available and staffed for ARFF emergencies. Index E airports service the largest aircraft in existence and must have at least three firefighting vehicles: one with a relatively small amount of water, and with a designated quantity of either dry powder or clean agent, and "two vehicles carrying an amount of water and the commensurate quantity of AFFF [foam] so the total quantity of water for foam production carried by all three vehicles is at least 6,000 gallons."

Clark County Fire provides fire protection services to McCarran Airport from Station #13, which at the time of this incident was staffed by 33 firefighters total, divided among three platoons of 11 firefighters who each worked ten days per month.

The primary response apparatus out of Station #13 were three Legacy (read: old) Striker 3000s, one of which was equipped with a high-reach extendible turret, or HRET. (ARFF units have taken some well-deserved heat from the NTSB and FAA for not making enough use of that versatile and demonstrably-more-effective tool. It got used here, though. Notice the insane volume of water flowing from the boom, on the left of the shot ~19 seconds in. You are looking at the first Oshkosh Striker 4500 8X8 that was ever built, and you are watching its HRET flow well over 1,000 gallons of water and foam per minute.)

The NTSB has been uncharacteristically quiet about this accident, so instead of linking you to a nonexistent accident report I'll do one better: Visit http://tiny.cc/britishfire for a massive collection of primary source documents from the NTSB investigation, including Boeing 777 emergency procedures, the cockpit voice recorder transcript, crew interviews, and much more. When (not if) you find something interesting in there, consider leaving a comment about it so others can check it out. The "Survival Factors Factual Report" is a great place to begin.

Some observations to kick things off: The CVR transcript reveals that the flight crew did not have anything resembling accurate information about fire conditions. In fact, the captain was under the impression that the fire had gone out after the plane came to a stop. He also seems to have been a bit frazzled, and in running the engine fire checklist the captain actually forgot to shut down the engine that was on fire.

Fortunately, the two - yes, two - first officers kept it together. One FO exited the cockpit to assess the situation from the cabin. He quickly returned, reporting heavy fire and stating they needed to evacuate immediately. The cabin crew performed admirably in the ensuing evacuation, and seem to have been very well trained. (Some of their training materials are linked above.)

Видео Extended Footage: British Airways Engine Fire at McCarran Airport (September 2015) канала What You Haven't Seen