Page:CAB Accident Report, TWA Flight 891.pdf/27

 11.2.2.2.

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Assembly No. 3

This assemny became detached from the right wing at the firewall, after the wing had broken off from the plane, and its rear portion struck the ground. The empact caused conSiderable damage; one of the propeller's three blades broke off and was buried under the engine.

The group showed no Visible signs of fire or damage from fire. 2 and 3 was found to be, respectively,

The pitch of blades 16 17° /21°, 22°, and 19.

Assemb No. Ll This assemny became detached from the right wing at the firewall, after the wing had broken off from the plane, and struck the ground with cylinder No. 17 undermst; the assembly suffered considerable damage from the impact.

The propeller, as the result of first striking a high tension wire and then of hitting the ground, became separated from the engine together with the dome and part of the propeller shaft and was hurled about 15 meters away. 01‘ the three blades, one remained attached to the hub, one broke off in two and the third broke off near the hub; these parts were found on the ground near the main wreckage of the propeller.

The examination of the rear part of the engine disclosed that a small fire had developed in the "power eg"; the pattern of the smoke traces and the flow of the metal melted by the flames showed that the fire started after the plane had crashed.

The itch of blades 1, 2 and 3 was found to be, respectively, 150/510, 16°/2o°, and l?°/19°.

Beault of the technical findings on the engine assemblies

Propellers

Nothing abnormal was revealed by the exmnination of the propellers; particularly, the differences in the pitch of the various blades were caused by impact with the ground, as was found upon inspection of the parts.

The checking, done in the U.S.A., of the calibrations shown by the governors of engines 1, 3 and 14 revealed that they were set for the following speeds:

propeller No. 1 - 2,611 reV. n It 3 _, 1,949 n u u h _ 2,502 II