Jeffrey D
Well-known member
We had a turn flight from Newark come in with the APU on deferral. It shut down when they were de-icing the plane in Newark. I had about an hour ground time with it before they wanted to board passengers. Maintenance control called me and asked me to try to start it as the mechanic in Newark stated it was choked out of air being sprayed with the de-ice fluid causing it to shut down.
I went out, pushed in the circuit breakers and tried to start it, it spooled up to about 17% and stayed there. So I had a hung start. I shut it down and pulled and safetied the circuit breakers. I notice through the cockpit windshield that people were gathering at the windows in the terminal looking in my direction. I thought to myself that passengers were thinking they were going to be delayed because the plane was broke. The APU was already inoperative, so it's no big deal.
I left and as I open the jetbridge door to go back to my office, the baggage guys are yelling at me "fire". I look back at the tail of the plane and black smoke is pouring out of the APU exhaust. I went into "Rut roh!" mode and rushed back into the cockpit, reset breakers and turned the APU switch on so I could see the exhaust gas temp reading. It was way up there so I blew the one fire bottle to extinguish the fire. The EGT dropped and then started climbing again. There is only one fire bottle for the APU.
I get on my radio and say "Operations, I need the fire department gate alpha eight, aircraft is on fire"
Now there was this little gate agent named Linda that had one speed and it wasn't fast. She comes back on the radio, "Does this mean we cant board Jeff?" I reply very loudly "Look out the window!"
Police, fire engines and airport operations come blazing in and the fire engines start hoseng down the plane, myself, belt loaders, peoples luggage on them ect. It was a big mess. I go back up to the cockpit to kill ground power and turn off the batteries to the plane and police would not let me in the airplane. "It's a crime scene until the NTSB clears it". I explain to police that I have to kill power for safety reasons and they allowed me to do that.
The "FAA / NTSB" show up hours later. Myself, ground staff, flight crew all had our incident reports filled out long before they arrived. My phone never stopped ringing from management all the way up to the director of maintenance wanting to know what happened.
I explain to the NTSB investigator what happened. He takes a look at the APU and said, "OK, have a good night" and that was it. We changed the APU and had the aircraft in service the next morning.
My mistakes. Number 1- I trusted what I was told by maintenance control that de-icing fluid shut the APU down. Number 2- when I went to extinguish the fire, I did not follow the check list and failed to close the fuel shutoff valve. I fed the fire.
The supposed de-ice fluid turned out to be fuel. Luckily the fire was contained in the combustion chamber of the APU, but it sure does look a lot worse than it actually is with the black smoke. In my defense, it was going to catch fire no matter who tried to start it.
My lessons learned is don't trust someone else's trouble shooting and always start from the beginning. Never deviate and always follow the checklist.
I went out, pushed in the circuit breakers and tried to start it, it spooled up to about 17% and stayed there. So I had a hung start. I shut it down and pulled and safetied the circuit breakers. I notice through the cockpit windshield that people were gathering at the windows in the terminal looking in my direction. I thought to myself that passengers were thinking they were going to be delayed because the plane was broke. The APU was already inoperative, so it's no big deal.
I left and as I open the jetbridge door to go back to my office, the baggage guys are yelling at me "fire". I look back at the tail of the plane and black smoke is pouring out of the APU exhaust. I went into "Rut roh!" mode and rushed back into the cockpit, reset breakers and turned the APU switch on so I could see the exhaust gas temp reading. It was way up there so I blew the one fire bottle to extinguish the fire. The EGT dropped and then started climbing again. There is only one fire bottle for the APU.
I get on my radio and say "Operations, I need the fire department gate alpha eight, aircraft is on fire"
Now there was this little gate agent named Linda that had one speed and it wasn't fast. She comes back on the radio, "Does this mean we cant board Jeff?" I reply very loudly "Look out the window!"
Police, fire engines and airport operations come blazing in and the fire engines start hoseng down the plane, myself, belt loaders, peoples luggage on them ect. It was a big mess. I go back up to the cockpit to kill ground power and turn off the batteries to the plane and police would not let me in the airplane. "It's a crime scene until the NTSB clears it". I explain to police that I have to kill power for safety reasons and they allowed me to do that.
The "FAA / NTSB" show up hours later. Myself, ground staff, flight crew all had our incident reports filled out long before they arrived. My phone never stopped ringing from management all the way up to the director of maintenance wanting to know what happened.
I explain to the NTSB investigator what happened. He takes a look at the APU and said, "OK, have a good night" and that was it. We changed the APU and had the aircraft in service the next morning.
My mistakes. Number 1- I trusted what I was told by maintenance control that de-icing fluid shut the APU down. Number 2- when I went to extinguish the fire, I did not follow the check list and failed to close the fuel shutoff valve. I fed the fire.
The supposed de-ice fluid turned out to be fuel. Luckily the fire was contained in the combustion chamber of the APU, but it sure does look a lot worse than it actually is with the black smoke. In my defense, it was going to catch fire no matter who tried to start it.
My lessons learned is don't trust someone else's trouble shooting and always start from the beginning. Never deviate and always follow the checklist.
