NTSB Factual Report

On July 6, 1996, Delta Airlines flight 1288, an MD-88, N927DA, experienced an uncontained failure of the left engine during the beginning of the takeoff roll. The flightcrew stopped the airplane about 1400 feet down the takeoff runway. On board the airplane were 137 passengers, 2 flightcrew members, 3 cabincrew, and 2 non-revenue Delta employees occupying the cockpit and aft jumpseats. Engine parts entered the left side of the aft cabin resulting in 2 passengers sustaining fatal injuries and 2 sustained major injuries. Three other passengers received minor injuries during the evacuation. The captain stopped the evacuation from the emergency exits, and an airstair was brought to the airplane to evacuate the remaining passengers and the crew. The fan hub for the left engine was found fractured.

NTSB Probable Cause

the fracture of the left engine's front compressor fan hub, which resulted from the failure of Delta Air Lines' fluorescent penetrant inspection process to detect a detectable fatigue crack initiating from an area of altered microstructure that was created during the drilling process by Volvo for Pratt & Whitney and that went undetected at the time of manufacture. Contributing to the accident was the lack of sufficient redundancy in the in-service inspection program. (NTSB Report AAR-98/01)