Accident Analysis: Fireworks

Fortunately, in-flight fires share another characteristic with those other two disasters: They’re rare, and they’re more survivable than you might expect. The NTSB categorized 87 accidents in a 10-year period as involving fires in flight, 42 of which continued on the ground. To be sure, the board’s classification is somewhat erratic: It listed the fire described in the AOPA Air Safety Institute’s Fire in the Cockpit Real Pilot Story as a “ground” fire, even though it clearly began in the traffic pattern. Still, even allowing for the occasional misclassification, in-flight fires made up a little more than one-half of 1 percent of all GA accidents during that time.

Better yet, more than 60 percent were resolved without serious injuries. These included a Robinson R22 whose instructor made a successful emergency autorotation after a broken drive belt punctured the engine’s oil cooler; a Piper Saratoga in which a fuel injector line was left unsecured following a cylinder replacement; and an Experimental Lancair IV-P whose resourceful owner returned to the field, maneuvered around other traffic, and even managed to extend the gear after a short circuit caused a battery fire.

Twenty-three—just more than one-quarter—did end in fatalities. That’s not good, but it’s far lower than the 85- to 90-percent lethality of VFR-into-IMC accidents. In another 10 (about 11 percent), everyone survived, but some were seriously hurt.

The surviving pilots recognized the gravity of the situation and took immediate and decisive action—without succumbing to panic or losing control of the aircraft. That can save the day, even when the same pilot’s oversight allowed the fire to start in the first place, as with the Beech Sundowner that showed zero fuel pressure in its first runup after annual. Its pilot decided to take off anyway, only to find that the boost pump hadn’t been reconnected. He made it back to the infield; both he and his passenger escaped unharmed.

David Jack Kenny is manager of safety analysis for the AOPA Air Safety Institute.