Federal investigators say an electrical system malfunctioned, the autopilot quit and some radio communications were disrupted aboard a Frontier Airlines plane shortly before pilots made a fiery but safe emergency landing earlier this month.
No one among the 190 passengers and seven crew members was injured Oct. 5 on Flight 1326 from San Diego to Las Vegas, according to a preliminary report released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
An Oct. 21 lawsuit filed by a San Diego man and two others contradicts that assertion, alleging that the impact left “traumatized and injured passengers” stranded inside the “sweltering smoke-filled aircraft.”
NTSB investigators say crew members detected fumes, of burning rubber, along with a chemical or light smoke. Cockpit crew donned oxygen masks and declared an emergency about 19 minutes before the plane landed. Display screens, radio and transponders stopped functioning while the pilot and copilot conducted emergency procedures, the NTSB said.
Witnesses reported flames erupted and tires on the Airbus A321-211 aircraft burst as it landed at 3:10 p.m., trailing a plume of smoke down a runway at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport. But the fire was quickly doused by firefighters. Passengers were not immediately evacuated.
Video recordings and photos included with the report showed fire and smoke billowing from the main landing gear before the aircraft came to a stop on the runway. Damage was limited to landing gear, wheels, tires and brakes, the report said.
Crew members said they were surprised to learn from firefighters that a fire had been extinguished in the right engine. “There had been no engine fire indications in the cockpit,” the report said.
Aircraft data monitors identified a fault in a fan that cools aircraft control systems about the same time the odor was detected.
The flight data recorder stopped recording about nine minutes before the plane landed after electrical power was cut according to emergency procedures, but the cockpit voice recorder remained operational. Both devices are being studied by the NTSB in Washington.
A final report could take about a year to complete.
The civil suit, filed in Nevada’s Clark County District Court on behalf of San Diego County resident Eddie Frierson and Clark County residents Alberto Cardos-Ramirez and Ana Figueroa-Cueva, alleges negligence on the part of the airline.
Frontier officials said they could not comment on pending litigation.