Simmons Airlines Aerospatiale ATR-72 incident
Aerospatiale ATR-72 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95IA313
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Airline
- 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
Aerospatiale ATR-72
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale ATR-72
- 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
- N414WF
- Operator
- Simmons Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), ILTo not recorded
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Engine compartment › Fire
- Fuel system, drain › Blocked(total)
- Fuel system, line fitting › Leak
- Fuel system, nozzle › Improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was on its first flight of the day after engine fuel system maintenance. While climbing through 7500 feet, the fire warning system activated. The flight crew extinguished the fire, secured the engine, and returned to the departure airport. Examination of the engine revealed that a fuel leak had occurred at the #7 and #8 fuel manifold nozzle transfer tubes. The fuel manifold transfer tube locking plates for the #7 and #8 nozzle assemblies were found improperly installed, and the respective 'O' rings were found to be cut and scratched. Also, the engine's overboard (fuel/oil) drain line was found to be about 99% blocked with a carbon-like material. Additionally, the engine's fuel manifold and turbine support case drain lines were noted to be positioned directly opposite each other within the drain manifold. The drain line's turbine support case fitting had an oversized and offset, crush gasket. The nacelle's interior had a flame discolored area directly below this fitting.
Probable cause
improper installation of the #7 and #8 fuel nozzle manifold transfer tubes by company maintenance personnel, and an inadequate exhaust drain fitting gasket, which resulted in fuel leaks at the respective 'O' ring/gasket fittings; blockage of the fuel/oil drain manifold; and subsequent fire in the engine compartment.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95IA313
- Event ID
- 20001207X04443
- Case number
- CHI95IA313
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ce1b91376a5a53500c25bd9681508603da466dc370b9674d43a6ef06f0af5c05; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:57:36.971Z.