Boeing 747 incident near Dallas, Texas, February 25, 2013
On February 25, 2013, a Boeing 747, registered B18701, suffered minor damage in an incident during taxi (from runway) near Dallas, Texas. It was flown under foreign airline rules (Part 129). No one was hurt; 3 people were on board or involved. The weather was conditions the NTSB did not record.
The NTSB's probable cause their words, unchanged
Fuel leaking from a fractured fuel manifold feeder line that ignited on contact with the engine’s hot compressor rear frame, which resulted in an engine undercowl fire. The fuel manifold feeder line failed due to high amplitude fatigue because the fuel manifold resonance frequencies were within the engine operation range. Contributing to the incident was that the engine was overhauled about the same time as the most current fuel manifold configuration that addressed the high amplitude fatigue failure mode was introduced, thus it was not installed on the engine.
Source: NTSB aviation accident database, copy made October 5, 2026. Docket and reports at the NTSB.
What the record shows
- Date
- February 25, 2013
- Place
- Dallas, Texas · map
- Type
- Incident
- Injuries
- No one was hurt; 3 people were on board or involved.
- Weather
- conditions the NTSB did not record
- Aircraft
- Boeing 747 409F · all 747s on the register
- Registration
- B18701 · no longer on the register · serial 30759
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Flight · foreign airline rules (Part 129)
The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record
On February 25, 2013, a Boeing B747-409F freighter, B-18701, powered by four General Electric CF6-80C2B1F turbofan engines, experienced a No. 2 (left inboard) engine undercowl fire while taxiing after landing at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas Texas. After receiving the fire warning, the pilots discharged a fire suppression bottle and the fire ceased. There were no injuries to the three crewmembers on board and no airplane damage was reported. The incident flight was a regularly scheduled cargo flight, operated by China Airlines under provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 129, from Taipei, Taiwan, to Dallas with stops in Anchorage, Alaska, and Atlanta, Georgia. Initial visual examination of the engine found that at the No. 2 fuel nozzle position, the right fuel manifold feeder tube aft o-ring support was displaced rearward against the snap ring. When the No. 2 fuel nozzle feeder tube shroud was removed, the feeder tube was found fractured and separated between the feeder tube-to-ferrule weld joint and the aft o-ring, which is one of the features that prevents a fuel leak when the feeder tube fractures. Metallurgical examination revealed that the feeder tube fractured due to lower alternating stress high-cycle fatigue cracking that transitioned to increasing alternating stress fatigue cracking before ultimately failing in overload. Further, the o-ring had sustained a spiral-like separation. Additional examination confirmed that no inclusions or any material anomalies at the feeder tube crack initiation sites and that the material properties of the feeder tube and o-ring and the weld quality met their required specifications. The fracture mode of the feeder tube is well-documented and GE issued Service Bulletin (SB) 73-0371 to introduce a redesigned fuel manifold and bracket to address this issue. Service Bulletin 73-0371 also introduced changes to the manifold feeder tube configuration and orientation (to avoid resonance frequencies of the manifold that were within the engine operating range) to prevent fuel manifold fractures and wear-through of the tube thickness that had resulted in previous fuel leaks and undercowl fires. The SB was issued just 7 days before the installation of the incident fuel manifold on the incident engine; therefore the operator was unable to install the most current fuel manifold design.
The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.
The factual record from the NTSB's investigation tables, in plain English
What happened, in order
- Fire/smoke (non-impact) during taxi (from runway) defining event
- Powerplant sys/comp malf/fail during taxi (from runway)
The NTSB's findings
- cause Aircraft › Aircraft power plant › Engine fuel and control › Fuel distribution › Fatigue/wear/corrosion
- factor Aircraft › Aircraft power plant › Engine fuel and control › Fuel distribution › Design
- cause Aircraft › Aircraft power plant › Engine fuel and control › Fuel distribution › Failure
The aircraft
- Landing gear: fixed
- Engine: General Electric CF6-80C2B1F (turbofan); 0 hours total
- Fire on the ground
- Operator: China Airlines
The flight
- Departed from: ATL Altanta GA
- Destination: DFW Dallas TX
- Flight plan: IFR
- A second pilot was aboard
Weather at the time
- Light: not reported
- Temperature: 0°F (-18°C), dew point 0°F (-18°C)
Injuries
| Fatal | Serious | Minor | None | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flight crew | 3 |
Documents from the investigation the NTSB's docket: the evidence folder behind the report
The docket, the folder of records gathered during an investigation (maintenance records, photographs, witness statements, examinations), has not been read from the NTSB for this case yet; the list appears here once it has. Open the docket at the NTSB.
Other NTSB records under B18701 the same tail number, which may have belonged to a different aircraft at the time
Everything on this page comes from the NTSB's public records. The narrative, probable cause and findings are the NTSB's own words; the coded tables behind the report are written out in plain English, with pilots' ages, home towns and medical details left out. The documents and photographs are the NTSB's docket, shown as the NTSB released them. This site's own text never names anyone involved. A preliminary report can change; the final report usually follows one to two years later, and the page is refreshed when it does.