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| Date: | Sunday 13 February 2011 |
| Time: | 16:16 |
| Type: |  Airbus A330-243 |
| Owner/operator: | Air Europa |
| Registration: | EC-LKE |
| MSN: | 461 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2002 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 39563 hours |
| Engine model: | Rolls-Royce Trent 772-B60 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 344 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor, repaired |
| Category: | Serious incident |
| Location: | near Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD/LEMD) -
 Spain
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez Airport (MAD/LEMD) |
| Cancún Airport (CUN/MMUN) | |
| Investigating agency: | CIAIAC |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Air Europa flight UX63, an Airbus A330-200, was 14 minutes into the flight after takeoff from MAD when the no.2 engine was shut down due to excessive vibrations. The airplane subsequently returned to Madrid for a safe landing.
Causes
The incident on aircraft EC-LKE occurred due to the detachment of fan blade n.º 4 (P/N FW23741 S/N RGF18472) on the right engine (Trent 772B-60 S/N 41222) after 4,367 cycles due to a crack propagated by fatigue starting from a bonding defect measuring 600 × 70 µm and located 150 mm away from the root and 113 mm away from the leading edge, at the bond line between the suction panel and internal membrane.
This defect, caused by the presence of an organic contaminant during the manufacturing process, in addition to impeding the bonding of the material, modified the material’s properties locally without causing any visible microstructural changes. Under normal operating conditions, this defect, in isolation, could not have grown and fractured the blade after 4,367 cycles. It is thus likely that the blade was subjected to higher than normal loads. The circumstances under which said loads could have been produced could not be determined.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
CIAIAC
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 27 May 2018 | EC-LVL | Air Europa | 0 | Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez Airport (MAD/LEMD) | |
non |
| Near miss | ||||||
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 19-Sep-2025 17:12 | FlyWolf | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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