A fatigue crack in the engine of a British Airways Boeing 777-200ER was to blame for a Sept. 8, 2015, uncontained engine failure and fire during the airplane’s takeoff roll at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says.
The captain rejected the takeoff and stopped the 777 on the runway within seconds, according to an NTSB report, released Wednesday. The 157 passengers and 13 crewmembers evacuated using emergency slides.
Although the captain ordered passengers to evacuate from the right side of the airplane, the right engine ran for 43 seconds after he issued the order, and the resulting jet blast blew two emergency slides out of position. As a result, passengers and crew were able to use only two of eight doors to leave the airplane before smoke and flames affected the fuselage, the NTSB said.
“The NTSB found that the captain did not use his quick reference handbook to read and do checklist items,” the agency sa…
