Flight 1610 · McDonnell Douglas DC-10
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD01IA034
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- 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
- N375FE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Boston, MATo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Company maintenance personnel › Ice/frost removal from aircraft, inadequate
- Compressor assembly › Foreign object damage
- Engine inlet assembly › Ice ingestion
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The three-engine jet was parked outside in snowy weather all day. During the 2 hours prior to departure, the airplane was treated three times with de-ice and anti-ice fluid. At takeoff, sparks were observed coming from the #2 (center), tail-mounted engine. No abnormal indications were observed on the engine instruments in the cockpit, but a slight vibration was felt, and the flight crew elected to return to the departure airport. At touchdown, reverse thrust was selected on all three engines and a fire erupted from the #2 engine. Both the flight crew in the airplane, and crash/fire/rescue personnel on the ground responded to the fire, and no one was injured. An FAA airworthiness directive mandated that a thorough preflight inspection of the #2 engine inlet and bellmouth area be conducted in icing conditions. The maintenance personnel that performed the de-ice procedure and the preflight inspection, said that a puddle of de-ice fluid was visible in the #2 engine bellmouth area. Post-accident examination of the #2 engine revealed "soft body" damage, consistent with the ingestion of ice, and "hard body" damage, consistent with the ingestion of ice-damaged engine parts. Examination of the airplane revealed that the heated bellmouth drain-line modification that was noted in the logbook, had not been completed.
Probable cause
The inadequate de-ice and preflight inspection procedure of the #2 engine inlet and bellmouth area by company maintenance personnel that resulted in ice ingestion and foreign object damage of the #2 engine.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD01IA034
- Event ID
- 20010329X00669
- Case number
- IAD01IA034
- 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, coordinates. 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: 76ee59d4285d893e63f60436fae5e1f2902f7bb16771b5322cb5fc4a443f1ee0; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:16:15.210Z.