- Date
- January 20, 1991, 20:45 local (Jan 21, 1991, 02:45 UTC)
- Place
- St. Paul, MN
- Injuries
- 44 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Aircraft
- N295USBoeing 727-251
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/bright
- Status
- Completed · report September 28, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 14927
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
On this page
Probable cause
The partial failure of the airplane's auxiliary power unit, and the inadequate component produced by the manufacturer.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The flight crew was informed by the tower of a fire on the right side of the airplane while taxiing for takeoff. The fire preceeded by utilizing the auxilary power unit (APU) for a main engine start. The main engine start was aborted when the APU failed to deliver sufficient bleed air pressure. A post incident inspection of the APU disclosed a liberated turbine exducer blade which caused an imbalance of the turbine wheel, allowing smopke and flames to escape from the APU exhaust atop the right wing root. There has been 7 service difficulty reports and 4 accidents/incidents associated with exducer failures in this model APU in the last five years.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N295US
- Reported as
- Boeing 727-251
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 21506
- Engine
- P&W JT8D-15, 15,000 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Part 121
- Operator
- Northwest Airlines, Inc.
- Registered owner
- First Security Bank Of Utah
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · January 2, 2000
- Destination
- PHL · Philadelphia, PA
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- MSP · Mineapolis St. Paul
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 37
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 750 total · 750 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/bright
- Wind
- 340° at 12 knots
- Visibility
- 12 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 9 °F
- Observed at
- MSP, 1 nm away