Dyess B-1B fire

A Dyess B-1 that was undergoing engine maintenance suffered a major engine fire, resulting in two people being sent to the hospital. A video making the rounds on Facebook, that hasn't been confirmed to be from the incident, but appears to be, shows the aft end of the aircraft engulfed in a large fire. Both people injured suffered non-life threatening injuries and have been released from a local hospital. No word on damage to the aircraft has been released, but based on the size of the fire, the aircraft will probably be written off.

A B-1B bomber caught fire on the flight line at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, on April 20, the base announced.

The fire started around 10 p.m. during “routine engine maintenance” while the B-1 Lancer was parked, according to a Dyess press release.

Two individuals were injured during the fire and transported to a local medical facility with “non-life-threatening injuries,” according to the release. They were later released.

A Dyess Air Force Base public affairs official told Air Force Magazine that the cause of the fire and whether the aircraft can be salvaged are still being investigated. Information on the injured individuals, including whether they were members of the aircrew or maintainers, is not being released at this time.

www.airforcemag.com...

definitely a sad note for the personnel in that area

They grounded the whole fleet of B1’s because of this incident.
Watching the video it seems they really need to have more firefighting drills and better response times.

This is a bad time to ground the whole fleet, it makes you wonder if there is sabotage involved.

a reply to: choomsuba

The B-1s have been grounded four or five times in and last three years or so. Most recently last year for a fuel pump issue. This looks like a fuel or hydraulic fire, meaning that unless they had fire trucks sitting at the plane, it was going to get big in a hurry.

I haven’t seen anything on them being grounded over this incident yet, but if they are, operational missions will be flown on an as needed basis. Training flights won’t fly until the aircraft are inspected.

New video circulating today shows the initial explosion. They were running the engine, there’s a brief flash of fire, then a large wall of flames seen in the first video.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Can't be that long till the airframes are retired surely?!

a reply to: Woody510

They’ve sent a number to the Boneyard already. The rest will stick around until the Raider is operational.

a reply to: Zaphod58
With so many problems why do you think they had so many issues?Part breakages or bad design getting through to the production lines.I can remember in the 80,s F111,s had fuel pump malfunctions that led to a spate of crashes.

a reply to: Zaphod58

With today's medicine, unfortunately "non-life threatening injuries" doesn't necessarily mean not serious. Burn treatments have advanced to the point where people can survive horrific burns that would have been fatal a few decades ago. I hope that's not the case for these guys. My POL career, that was always my biggest fear was fire.

a reply to: face23785
in the navy as a boatswainmate...fire was right up there things i hoped never to have to use my training of

i can only wonder how they fight such a fire there
isd it one that takes shifts in fire suppression tactics

1st you have this fuel...was it a special fuel to begin with but yeah a fuel fire requires it to be fought as such...A FUEL FIRE

but a clock is ticking as temperatures approach flash points of exotic metals
once magnesium or titanium sparks off...you have to shift a tactic of fire suppression as you're now fighting an exotic metal fire

unless if ya can't suppress the fuel fire before the burning material type shifts
"YOU JUST RUN "

not to even consider what's in those payload bays

yup i feel for those who had to suppress that fire

a reply to: Blackfinger

A big part was simply lack of spares. They never put the money into the supply system for them they should have. It’s also an incredibly complex system. Any swing wing design is. Lots of failure points involved.

a reply to: Zaphod58
one job shop i was at
some days i'd be on a 3 spindle gantry making b1-b wing pivots
other days i'd be on a 6 spindle bridge mill making retro-fit b52 landing gear

i'd just chuckle under my breath looking at the scope of things there

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Blackfinger

A big part was simply lack of spares. They never put the money into the supply system for them they should have. It’s also an incredibly complex system. Any swing wing design is. Lots of failure points involved.

The Bone hasn't had any political support for at least 30 years, really a shame.

a reply to: PatriotGames4u

It doesn't help that they were grounded three times by 1991. And four in recent years.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: PatriotGames4u

It doesn't help that they were grounded three times by 1991. And four in recent years.

Agreed.

Downward spiral of sorts since at least 91, probably 89.

The plane needed far too many improvements in order to realize it's potential, and nobody wanted to spend that kind of money after 89. Perhaps rightfully so, but still a shame that the beautiful bird never became what it could have been.

I'm hearing persistent rumors from normally reliable personal 'sources' that a dozen or so of the airframes *might* be repurposed into something pretty crazy, but it's possibly just the wet dreams of engineers.

a reply to: Blackfinger

Back in 07 before I left active duty supply would routinely deliver parts that didnt quite fit.

They were for the Bone, but somehow the manufacturer screwed it up, I would guess it has something to do with starting production, ending production to start production again before finally ending it.

a reply to: PatriotGames4u

That rumor pops up every so often, but the chances of it going anywhere are pretty slim. Too many significant issues with upgrades and airframe changes.

Started a new thread instead.
-cwm

The aircraft (85-0089) was undergoing routine maintenance for a problem with the variable exhaust nozzle on the #1 engine. The engine run required a run to maximum augmenter to verify the nozzle positioning. During the run, the #1 engine catastrophically failed, resulted in severed fuel lines, resulting in a fire in the #1 engine, that resulted in $15M in damage to the engine, fuselage, and wing area.

The aircraft flew on 20 April, 2022 as SLAM1, completing an approximately 3 hour sortie. They used the augmenter for takeoff, and flew the mission at approximately 0.75 mach, with a 25 degree wing sweep. Upon landing, they turned the aircraft over to another crew for a hot refuel, and another sortie, flying as HAWK81. The incoming crew shut down engines #3 and 4, and left #1 and #2 at idle for the refueling. The new crew noticed that the #1 variable exhaust nozzle indication showed closed, when it should have been in the full open position at idle. Engine specialists checked that the exhaust nozzle indications in the cockpit were operational, and matched the physical position of the nozzle. The crew was asked to advance the power on the engine, which resulted in the nozzle moving to the correct position, and returning to the correct position at idle.

As the engine crew was leaving the aircraft, the engine went back to indicating closed. The crew was called back out, and the decision was made to switch to another aircraft. Upon troubleshooting the aircraft, without the engine running, with a diagnosis of hydraulic filter, and hydraulic pump servo filter being the cause of the nozzle failure. After installation of the new filters, the T.O. required an augmenter run to ensure the hydraulic pump operated properly, and didn't leak fluid. The engine crew started engines, following all T.O. procedures, and initiated the augmenter check. Both ground observers, and cockpit personnel observed the engine nozzle operating correctly, and moving to the proper positions for the power settings. The augmenter was run for 10 seconds, as instructed by the T.O. before being moved to the idle position.

The maintenance crew performed a second augmenter run, as required, and during this run, as the augmenter lit, there was a fuel flow augmenter flame detection light, immediately followed by a fireball near the fan section of the engine, that expanded fifty feet out along the wing, and 200 feet into the air. Pieces of engine and cowling were found as far as 1,000 feet away from the aircraft. The engine run supervisor ordered the other member in the cockpit, and the ground personnel to evacuate the area, while he shut down the engine, notified the tower, and activated the on board firefighting equipment. Fire crews arrived on scene and had the fire out within ten minutes.

An examination of the engine maintenance history showed that it had been removed from an aircraft at Ellsworth for a #4 bearing leak, and sent to the Dyess Centralized Repair Facility in 2021. In January 2022, the engine was installed on the Mishap Aircraft. According to the Digital Engine Computer, the engine had 320 Total Accumulated Cycles since its last overhaul in 2017. A TAC is the number of times the engine is accelerated and decelerated. The engine had 3,680 TACs remaining before its next overhaul.

The history of the 2nd Stage Fan Disk was examined back to 1998 when it was first installed into an engine. It underwent all required modifications and updates as scheduled. In May 2014, the disk was damaged in a FOD ingestion incident. It was repaired according to T.O. requirements and placed into storage as a spare asset. It underwent a SLEP in 2017 before being installed into the Mishap Engine later that year, as part of the engine SLEP. The ME served as a spare engine, until it was installed in an aircraft in 2019. The ME had 7448.7 total hours, and 12.2 hours since its last Hourly Postflight Inspection.

The 2nd Stage Fan Disk was found in three large pieces, and many smaller pieces, with most of the blades damaged. The #1 engine nacelle suffered extensive fire damage, in addition to the damage caused by the disk exiting the side of the nacelle. The disk was found 564 feet from the aircraft. The left wing suffered extensive fire damage, with physical buckling near the wing root, above the nacelle.

Ouch...Sounds like the FOD had some micro cracks or if it was blended out had the disc out of balance.