Nationwide Airlines - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

November 7, 2007: A Nationwide Airlines Boeing 737-200 lost its right engine a few seconds after liftoff from Cape Town International Airport en route to OR Tambo International Airport. The official CAA report found that the Nationwide Aircraft Maintenance, the airline's air maintenance organisation had failed to implement the mandated service directive to inspect the rear engine mounting on the 737-200 series aircraft every 700 cycles and that this omission hid the existence of a stress fracture in one of the engine retaining bolts which failed at rotation. This retaining bolt failure put sufficient strain on the engine pylon that it completely detached from the wing(to prevent wing damage) while the pilots performed an emergency one engine climb. The engine fell onto the runway, causing the airport to close and various other aircraft to be diverted to George Airport. During the accident, the aircraft also lost most of its 'A' system hydraulic fluid (and a substantial quantity of fuel from the right wing tank) via the now severed connections between the fuel and hydraulic system and the right engine. This kind of separation, and severance of the lines had been anticipated by Boeing engineers, but due to the nature of the separation, the break in the lines occurred deeper into the wing than the pre-planned breaking point. Amongst other failures, this also degraded the wheel brakes, and the nose wheel steering would not function. The undercarriage would also not extend normally and had to be lowered manually. Back at Cape Town, the detached engine remained to the east of the runway, and was only moved after an initial inspection by the accident investigators. Captain Trevor Arnold and First Officer Daniel Perry were in command of this flight, numbered CE723. Daniel Perry was the pilot flying at the time of the accident. No-one was injured.

Captain Trevor Arnold was subsequently honoured through the receipt of the international Polaris Award for his airmanship and the handling of the emergency.