Vital parts missing from plunge plane

Press, 7 May 1983, Page 11

Vital parts missing from plunge plane

* NZPA-Reuter Miami J Small but vital parts * which monitor impurities in | oil flow were missing from * all three engines of an East- * ern Airlines Lockheed LlOll f which made an emergency * landing in Miami yesterday, i' said a company spokesman. ! 4 , “They just weren’t there,” said an Eastern spokesman, Jim Ashlock, referring to '• parts known as “0” rings. !» “We and Rolls-Royce ■i (makers of the 1011 engines) ;• are relieved to find there is > nothing wrong with the en- " gines,” said Mr Ashlock. “Now we have to find out twktt iha ‘(V rincfft WPrP.

missing.” National Transportation Safety Board officials are leading the investigation into why the plane, with 162 passengers and a crew of 10, lost power in all three of its engines on a flight from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas. The pilot, Dick Boddy, managed to restart one engine after the plane dropped 3700 metres, and flew it back to a safe landing at Miami International Airport. Passengers had donned life vests to prepare for a possible ditch in the Atlantic. United States Coast Guard boats and helicopters

took up positions along the airliner’s flight path as it limped home, and a small Guard jet escorted it to the runway. Mr Ashlock said that Eastern engineers had quickly spotted the cause of the problem and had informed investigators. The rubber rings, one of which should have been placed in all three engines, were like parts in the gearbox of a car.

They should have been screwed on to bolts projecting into the engines to detect metal shavings or other impurities in the oil, like a washer or a gasket.