The NTSB says that the cockpit fire that forced a United flight from JFK to LAX to be diverted to Dulles on Sunday may have been caused by a "recurring issue" in Boeing 757 planes. Investigators are inspecting the plane and the NTSB cautions, "We haven't narrowed down what the issues are with this incident yet."
Passenger Phil Lobel, a LA-based publicist, said he and others smelled an electrical burning smell, "The people that were sitting in first class had taken pictures and seen the flames coming out of the cockpit actually, when the door was open. Smoke was coming out and they saw that the front windshield was completely shattered from the heat of the fire. Everybody had masks on - the pilot and co-pilot had masks on breathing oxygen."
NYC Aviation explains a little more about the recurring issue, which is a "long known problem with faulty wiring in windshield heaters on many Boeing models, but especially the 757. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Air Greenland 757s have all suffered cockpit fires in the past few years, all of which were successfully extinguished by the crew," and adds, "Cockpit fires tend to bring back horrific memories of SwissAir Flight 111, a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11, which, while enroute to Zurich from JFK, crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia as the result of a fire which caused loss of control of the aircraft." Yikes.
