ANC94FA036 · Lockheed L-1011
Rich International Airways Lockheed L-1011 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) to Miami International Airport (MIA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC94FA036
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Lockheed L-1011
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-1011
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N303EA
- Operator
- Rich International Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fairbanks International Airport (FAI)To Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff · roll/run
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Compressor assembly, rotor disc › Corroded
- Compressor assembly, rotor disc › Failure, total
- Compressor assembly, rotor disc › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS FULL POWER WAS APPLIED FOR TAKEOFF, THERE WAS A RUPTURE OF THE 6TH STAGE DISC ON THE INTERMEDIATE COMPRESSOR 6/7TH ROTOR SHAFT ASSEMBLY IN THE #3 ENGINE. PIECES OF DISC SEVERED A FUEL INLET LINE & PENETRATED THE #1 ENGINE & THE FUSELAGE. FIRE WARNINGS FOR THE #3 & #1 ENGINES WERE ACTIVATED & ENGINE FIRE BOTTLES WERE DISCHARGED DURING AN ABORTED TAKEOFF. RESIDUAL FIRE IN ONE ENGINE WAS EXTINGUISHED BY AIRPORT FIRE FIGHTERS. ABOUT 80% OF THE FAILED DISC WAS FOUND; METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION SHOWED CORROSION PITTING & SMALL FATIGUE CRACKS AT THE ATTACHMENT HOLES. THE LARGEST CRACK WAS 0.13' DEEP & 0.23' WIDE. ACCORDING TO ROLLS ROYCE CALCULATIONS, THIS SIZE CRACK WOULD NOT HAVE RESULTED IN FAILURE UNLESS THE N2 ROTOR RPM HAD REACHED 118%. A TELLTALE MARKER FOR THE FLIGHT ENGINEER'S #3 N2 GAUGE SHOWED 106% (RED-LINE WAS 102.5%), BUT THE TELLTALE MARKER WAS OUT OF CALIBRATION; THEREFORE, OVERSPEED WAS NOT VERIFIED. MAX EPR FOR TAKEOFF WAS WITHIN LIMITS. SERVICE BULLETIN (SB) RB.211-72-9569 REQUIRED THAT ROTORS EXCEEDING 14,000 CYCLES BE REMOVED BY 4/30/93; THE FAILED ROTOR HAD 16,327 CYCLES. THE SB WAS 'S-MANDATORY' IN THE U.K., BUT IT WAS NOT MANDATORY IN THE U.S.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE SIXTH STAGE DISC ON THE INTERMEDIATE COMPRESSOR STAGE 6/7TH ROTOR SHAFT ASSEMBLY IN THE NUMBER THREE ENGINE, DUE TO CORROSION PITTING AND FATIGUE CRACKING OF THE FAILED DISC. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: FAILURE OF THE AIRLINE COMPANY TO FOLLOW PROVISIONS OF THE SERVICE BULLETIN. FOREIGN OBJECT DAMAGE TO THE NUMBER ONE ENGINE WAS THE RESULT OF THE UNCONTAINED FAILURE OF THE NUMBER THREE ENGINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC94FA036
- Event ID
- 20001206X00689
- Case number
- ANC94FA036
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-03-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: af35c449b8859074ba92c31c8904598838b84e6aa3c227a3d5c4020416ba4386; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:18:00.373Z.