Simmons Airlines Flight 3538
Aerospatiale ATR-72-12 · Incident: fire en route
From William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97IA222
- 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-72-12
- 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
- N438AT
- Operator
- Simmons Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), Houston, TXTo Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Fire
- 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, alignment, improper
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Fuel system, fuel flow divider/distributor › Leak
- Miscellaneous, bolt/nut/fastener/clamp/spring › Loose part/bolt/nut/clamp/etc
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Dallas, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The ATR-72-12 transport airplane was at 5,000 feet MSL when the #2 engine fire warning light illuminated. After shutting down the #2 engine and actuating the fire extinguishing system, the crew executed a single engine landing followed by a normal taxi to the ramp and normal passenger debarkation. Inspection of the P&W 127 series engine showed that a fuel transfer tube adjacent to the #2 nozzle was misaligned and 'backed out' of its retaining clip. Fuel streaking and fire damage were evident down the right side of the engine from the #2 nozzle downward along the fuel nozzle ring assembly. The incident occurred 3.4 hours after the fuel nozzles, retaining clips, and transfer tubes were replaced during maintenance on the #2 engine. The engine manufacturer had published several service bulletins addressing the potential of incorrectly installing the retaining clips and recommending that existing clips be replaced with stronger lock plates that provide a positive locking mechanism to avoid misalignment during installation. The manufacturer issued a Service Bulletin in October 1994 and Transport Canada issued an AD in November 1996, both citing how the retaining clips could be installed 'out of position' and recommending that operators use the newer lock plate. The FAA had published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on July 17, 1995, addressing the aforementioned issues. FAA AD 98-14-02 was published in the Federal Register on July 1, 1998. The AD was similar to the Canadian AD issued on November 19, 1996.
Probable cause
the engine fire during descent resulting from a loose, leaking fuel transfer tube due to improper installation and alignment of the transfer tube's retaining clip. Contributing factors were the inadequate design of the clamp, the failure of the operator to comply with the recommendations of the manufacturer's Service Bulletin (SB), and the failure of the FAA to issue an Airworthiness Directive to mandate the manufacturer's SB.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97IA222
- Event ID
- 20001208X08113
- Case number
- FTW97IA222
- 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: 6c4d84c39b53870d416b1d4962cf164d811a13513a8520a9ac8bd4fa2b2247df; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:31:04.732Z.