Boeing 787-8, registration VT-ANJ: Incident occurred July 28, 2012 in Charleston, South Carolina

NTSB Identification: DCA12IA114
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Incident occurred Saturday, July 28, 2012 in Charleston, SC
Aircraft: BOEING 787, registration: VT-ANJ
Injuries: 5 Uninjured.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On July 28, 2012, about 1600 eastern daylight time, a Boeing 787-8, registration VT-ANJ, experienced a contained engine failure during a taxi test at Charleston International Airport (CHS), Charleston, South Carolina. The airplane was being operated by Boeing under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 for the purpose of conducting a pre-delivery taxi test with no intention for flight. There were no injuries to the 5 people on board and the airplane sustained minor damage.

 The National Transportation Safety Board today assigned an investigator to find out why a General Electric engine on a South Carolina-made Boeing 787 failed during a test run at Charleston International Airport over the weekend. 

David Helson is the investigator in charge, the agency said in a statement.

In the next few days, an aircraft powerplants expert and a metallurgist from the NTSB Materials Lab will go to a GE plant in Cincinnati, to lead and coordinate the disassembly and examination of the engine.

On Sunday, the agency sent an aviation investigator with expertise in aircraft engines to the scene of the incident“to gather information to better understand the circumstances of the event.”

Boeing and GE notified the NTSB that the newly built 787 experienced an engine failure at 4:07 p.m. Saturday during a pre-delivery taxi test.

As a result of the failure, it has been reported that the engine left debris on the active runway at Charleston International and caused a brush fire in a nearby grassy area.

There were no passengers aboard the aircraft and no one was injured.

The airport, which is down to one active runway because of maintenance, had to be shut down for more than an hour.

The NTSB is an independent federal agency that’s chaired by Deborah Hersman.

The Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and GE are parties to the investigation.

For more details, see Wednesday’s editions of The Post and Courier.