KLM Flight 867

KLM Flight 867

The cockpit crew inspects the damage caused to PH-BFC by the ash cloud in Anchorage the day after the incident.
Incident
Date	15 December 1989 (1989-12-15)
Summary	Quadruple engine failure due to blockage by volcanic ash
Site	Over Redoubt Volcano, Anchorage, Alaska
Aircraft
PH-BFC, the aircraft involved in the incident, seen in 2014.
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-406M
Aircraft name	City of Calgary
Operator	KLM
IATA flight No.	KL867
ICAO flight No.	KLM867
Call sign	KLM 867
Registration	PH-BFC
Flight origin	Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Stopover	Anchorage Airport, Alaska, USA
Destination	Narita International Airport, Tokyo, Japan
Occupants	245
Passengers	231
Crew	14
Fatalities	0
Injuries	0
Survivors	245

On 15 December 1989, KLM Flight 867, en route from Amsterdam to Narita International Airport, Tokyo, was forced to make an emergency landing at Anchorage International Airport, Alaska, when all four engines failed. The Boeing 747-406M, less than six months old at the time, flew through a thick cloud of volcanic ash from Mount Redoubt, which had erupted the day before.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 747-406M, serial number 23982, and registered as PH-BFC. The aircraft had its maiden flight on 30 June 1989. It was, at the time of the incident, almost 6 months old and was delivered to KLM in September 1989. The 747 was equipped with four General Electric CF6-80C2B1F engines.

Engine failure

All four engines failed, leaving only critical systems on backup electrical power. One report assigned the engine shutdown to the conversion of the ash into a glass coating inside the engines that fooled the engine temperature sensors and led to an auto-shutdown of all four engines.

When all four main generators shut off due to the failure of all the engines, a momentary power interruption occurred when the flight instruments transferred to standby power. Standby power on the 747-400 is provided by two batteries and inverters. The captain performed the engine restart procedure, which failed on the first few attempts, and repeated it until restart was achieved. On some of the attempts, as one or more (but not all) engines started to operate, the main generator switched back on. This switching on and off caused repeated power transfer interruptions to the flight instruments. The temporary blanking of the instruments gave the appearance that standby power had failed. These power transfers were later verified from the flight data recorder.

Transcript

The following edited transmissions took place between Anchorage Center, the air traffic control facility for that region, and KLM 867:

Pilot: KLM 867 heavy is reaching level 250 heading 140

Anchorage Center: Okay, Do you have good sight on the ash plume at this time?

Pilot: Yea, it's just cloudy it could be ashes. It's just a little browner than the normal cloud.

Pilot: We have to go left now: it's smoky in the cockpit at the moment, sir.

Anchorage Center: KLM 867 heavy, roger, left at your discretion.

Pilot: Climbing to level 390, we're in a black cloud, heading 130.

Pilot: KLM 867 we have flame out all engines and we are descending now!

Anchorage Center: KLM 867 heavy, Anchorage?

Pilot: KLM 867 heavy, we are descending now: we are in a fall!

Pilot: KLM 867, we need all the assistance you have, sir. Give us radar vectors please!

Recovery and aftermath

After descending more than 14,000 ft (4250 m), the crew restarted the engines and safely landed the plane. In this case, the ash caused more than US$80 million in damage to the aircraft, requiring all four engines to be replaced, but there were no human deaths and no one was injured. A shipment of 25 African birds, two genets, and 25 tortoises aboard the plane was diverted to an Anchorage warehouse, where eight birds and three tortoises died before the mislabeled shipment was discovered.

The aircraft, PH-BFC, remained in service with KLM until its retirement from the fleet on 14 March 2018. It became part of the KLM Asia fleet in 1995 when the subsidiary was established to allow KLM to fly to both Taiwan and mainland China. PH-BFC was later repainted in the standard KLM livery after a maintenance check. It was scrapped in January 2020 at Teruel Airport.

See also

• British Airways Flight 009
• Singapore Airlines Flight 21A
• List of airline flights that required gliding
• Ring of Fire
• Volcanic ash and aviation safety

External links

• Airliners.Net – Picture of the plane that carried KLM Flight 867
• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
• "NTSB Identification: ANC90FA020." National Transportation Safety Board — Record of the incident
• Photo PH-BFC KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747-406(M), 14 October 1989
• U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
• Flightglobal 9 January 1990 {Volcano Flames Out KLM 747}
• Volcanic Hazards Impacts on Aviation, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee
• Cockpit audio recording via phys.org