Boeing 767 N360AA incident near Jamaica, New York

Probable cause

The failure of the American Airlines aviation maintenance technicians to properly reassemble the two-piece bracket and spray shield on the integrated drive generator fuel-oil heat exchanger that caused a fuel leak that sprayed out and ignited on hot engine cases. Contributing to the cause of the fire was the 767 Aircraft Maintenance Manual’s lack of any graphical or pictorial displays of the correct assembly of the two-piece bracket and spray shield.

NTSB analysis

On February 8, 2012, American Airlines flight 837, a Boeing 767-323ER, had a fire in the right engine, a General Electric (GE) CF6-80C2B6, shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Jamaica, New York. The pilots reported that as the airplane was climbing through 9,000 feet, they heard a bang that was immediately followed by a right engine fire warning in the cockpit. The pilots further stated that they shutdown the right engine and discharged both fire bottles into the right engine’s nacelle before the fire warning was extinguished. The pilots also stated that they declared an emergency and returned to JFK for a single-engine, overweight landing without further incident. When the right engine was wet motored, fuel leaked from the front of the integrated drive generator (IDG) fuel-oil heat exchanger. The examination of the front of the IDG fuel-oil heat exchanger revealed there was a pre-service bulletin 73-0242 two-piece bracket and spray shield that had been misinstalled with the bracket over the spray shield rather than the spray shield being over the bracket. American Airlines aviation maintenance technicians replaced the right engine's fuel flow transmitter and an adjacent fuel tube during the previous night requiring the removal and reinstallation of the bracket and spray shield on the front of the IDG fuel-oil heat exchanger. A seal under the fuel tube flange that is held in place by the bracket had the O-ring partially missing, which was the source of the fuel leak.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ENG12IA010 for the full record.