Allegiant Air flight bound for Dayton had mechanical issues, report shows

An Allegiant Air flight destined for Dayton International Airport, where an engine caught fire in March 2017, was one of 11 to suffer similar mechanical issues with the planes generator, according to a recently released report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

The March 19 flight was traveling from Orlando Sanford International Airport to Dayton, when the No. 2 engine caught fire due to a failure in one of the airplane’s generator, the report showed.

The findings come as Allegiant Air was the center of a 60 Minutes story, where more than 100 serious mechanical incidents were reported in the first 10 months of 2016 by Allegiant Air, raising questions about the performance of the airline’s fleet.

“The probable cause of the No. 2 (right) engine fire was an uncontained generator failure,” the report connected to the March incident read.  “Deformed rotating generator components and/or metal fragments radially released by the generator severed the constant speed drive-to-oil cooler return line adjacent to the generator and caused oil to spray onto hot generator and engine case surfaces that subsequently ignited.”

According to the NTSB, “11 prior uncontained generator failure events were reported since the year 2000” involving the Douglas Aircraft DC-9/McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series airplanes, the same airplane destined for Dayton.

In the 2017 incident, the airplane ultimately “made an uneventful single engine landing” and was met by fire and rescue crews on the runway. No injuries were reported to any of the 157 passengers or 6 crew members.

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