Fine Air Services Flight 363
Douglas DC-8F-55 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure while standing
From Miami International Airport (MIA) to SEQU · Quito
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA98IA035
- 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
Douglas DC-8F-55
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-8
- 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
- N55FB
- Operator
- Fine Air Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami International Airport (MIA)To SEQU · Quito
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Bleed air system, valve › Open
- Engine accessories, engine starter › Disintegrated
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight engineer stated that, after No. 4 engine start, the start valve closed as indicated by an increase in pressure in the manifold. Wile climbing through 13,500 feet, the fire warning light and bell illuminated and sounded for the No. 4 engine. Both fire bottles were discharged which extinguished the light and the flight returned landing uneventfully. While taxiing off the runway, the fire warning indication occurred again. The crew evacuated the airplane and the fire was extinguished. Examination of the No. 4 engine revealed that the start valve was 'fully' open and the pneumatic starter had disintegrated. Dents were noted on the interior surface of the starter housing. Disassembly of the non-heat damaged start valve revealed a discrepancy which would prevent the valve from fully closing. Examination of the pneumatic piston assembly and actuator from the valve revealed that the dimension of the inside diameter of the lower portion of the actuator body was less than what was specified. Heat damage to the retained components was noted. The start valve was overhauled September 1994, and had accumulated 1,857 cycles since. The maintenance records indicated that 3 starters were damaged in the 1 year period before the incident; all associated with the No. 4 engine. The total cycles at the time of failure of the first starter was not determined. The second and third starters had accumulated 155 and 478 cycles since installation at the time of failure.
Probable cause
The inadequate overhaul of the No. 4 engine start valve resulting in the valve remaining open after engine start; and the subsequent free run state of the starter resulting in a starter overheat, disintegration and fire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA98IA035
- Event ID
- 20001208X09216
- Case number
- MIA98IA035
- 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: e4d2bdaf40db278b3284cda681650adaae6d33f46417cd1489baab6a4420b3a5; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:18:03.078Z.