Boeing 747-259B N621FF

Summary

On 1 December 1998 at about 09:13 local time, a Boeing 747-259B registered N621FF, operated by Tower Air, was involved in an accident near Miami, Florida, United States. 4 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

1 December 1998 at 09:13

Classification

Accident

Location

Miami, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Miami International (MIA)

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

Boeing 747-259B

Registration

N621FF

Category

Airplane

Engines

4

Operator

Tower Air

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Unknown → Viracopos

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night/Dark

NTSB number

MIA99FA038

Nobody was injured.

a fire that started under the fuel truck's cab from an undetermined fuel leak, resulting in fire damage to the airplane.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight was delayed several hours from its originally scheduled departure, because the cargo had not yet been loaded. The first officer and engineer had entered the airplane, and laid down in the bunk beds at the aft end of the upper deck. The captain said he boarded the airplane about 0245, and, '...the cargo loading process was well on its way.' He got busy with determining the fuel load, and other changes in the flight plan. He said, '...suddenly we heard the Ground Crew Call signal...and I was told...the aircraft is on Fire... I ordered my crew to evacuate the aircraft. ' All the flight crew members exited the airplane out the L1, boarding door. An employee of Tower Air, standing on the left side of the airplane, near the nose said he noticed 'sparks' at the lower right hand side of the fuel truck, that was located under the right wing, near the ladder. He could see flames on the lower side of the truck under the right wing. He immediately beeped the flight deck crew who were in the cockpit, and realized they were probably not aware of the urgency, so he decided to run up the stairs and yelled 'Fire.' According to the refueler, he had pumped 6,000 gallons of Jet 'A' into the right wing and was standing on the deck over the pump when he noticed 'white to a light gray' smoke coming from the bottom of the truck's cab, and directly under him. He tried to disconnect the upper deck hoses from the airplane, but before he could he saw flames coming from the same area of the truck. He attempted to put out the fire with a handheld extinguisher, without success. Examination of the fuel truck revealed that there was intense fire damage near the truck's transmission. A hole was found in the fuel line from the pump to the hose, directly above the area of the most intense fire damage. The Metropolitan Dade County Fire Department, report stated, the fire damage on the truck's engine, '...was possibly due to burning jet fuel from fueling operations at the time of the fire...from under the vehicle in the area between the cab and tank...due to severe damage to the area tank/cab, the source of the fuel leak could not be determined.'

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.