El Al Engine fire and ground stop [merged threads]
 

Well tonights delays in JFK had a rather firey twist. We where in line for takeoff, about an hour on the ground, when the captain called and said that we where number 3. We run through the cabin one final time to check seatbelts and trays and seatbacks. As I'm making my way up to the front I notice a huge fireball exiting the rear of a departing aircraft. He immediatly aborted the takeoff, applied max breaking and came to a hault. It turns out an EL AL Cargo aircraft lost an engine on departure and covered the runway upon departure. It surely gave the customers something exciting to watch! Sure what a scary sight though. That's the first time I've witnessed an actual engine fire!

possible fire at JFK
 

I was taxiing at JFK today and happened to notice emergency vehicles surrounding an El Al Cargo plane. Anyone know what happened? I don't think it's anything serious as nothing is on the news tonight in New York.

Wow! That is crazy. I hope everyone on the LY cargo aircraft is OK. I don't know about their cargo division, but I can attest that after 6 (plus 2 upcoming this winter) segments, El Al is a fine airline.

JetBlueFA, what flight were you on tonight?? My friend was on 47 JFK-FLL.

1016 JFK-BOS It was pretty interesting to see. I haven't heard of any major problems with LY before but every once and a while an engine justs lets go. This trip was the interesting trip. Saturday we hit a bird on approach to RIC. It looked like a small sparrow or pigeon. It hit just forward of the 1L door. Pretty interesting weekend to say the least.

Doesnt suprise me really.
LY's 747-200 cargo's are all around the 35 year old mark.
Time they changed them.

It should be on the JFK ATC tapes. I texted my dad just as it was happening and he listened to the whole deal on the web. Everybody was calling up asking for permission to shut down while CFR (Crash/Fire/Rescue) looked the aircraft over and airport operations conducted a debris check on 31L because apparently he spit out some debris after the failure. The aircraft taxied clear of the runway and over to the cargo area (i assume the cargo area) under it's own power with CFR close in tow. I happened to be listening to some of it as the Captain has to use the Lav while we where waiting for Operations to conduct their FOD check.

Scary!

--Russ

It was an engine surge, not a fire. They are fairly routine events. They look far more dramatic than they actually are.

The El Al aircraft did indeed abort takeoff and is currently AOG at JFK, but a replacement engine should be arriving at JFK today.

Chronological age is not an accurate way to determine the condition of an aircraft or engine.

It was nothing particularly serious from a safety standpoint.

It was not a fire, but an engine surge. Engine surges look like fires to a layperson, but they are not. The flame is not sustained -- just a one time thing. Engine surges are fairly routine events -- rarely a day goes by without one being reported somewhere in the world.

It is large economic issue, however. The aircraft in question is currently AOG at JFK, but a replacement engine is scheduled to arrive today. The engine that surged will need to be overhauled (I cannot go into the specifics of what the damage is).

Perhaps.
However based on the problem ELAL had with the passenger 742's (which are now operating as cargo) any event such as this do not surprise me.
When they insisted on flying the old bird on the TLV-LHR route way past its sell by date, they had non stop problems and delays as a result.