American A320 at Phoenix on Jun 13th 2016, dropped engine cowl

Passenger photo (Photo: JourneyGal)

An American Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration N654AW performing flight AA-403 from Phoenix,AZ to San Francisco,CA (USA), departed Phoenix's runway 07L when the right hand engine's (V2527) access doors opened and separated from the aircraft landing on the runway. The aircraft continued departure, climbed to 10,000 feet, the crew reported the engine cowl had failed on them but all engine indications were normal. The aircraft returned to Phoenix for a safe landing on runway 08 about 25 minutes after departure.

A replacement A320-200 registration N653AW reached San Francisco with a delay of 2.5 hours.

On Jun 14th 2016 the FAA reported the aircraft received minor damage when the engine cowling separated from the engine during departure. The aircraft returned to Phoenix. The occurrence was rated an incident.

Incident: American A320 at Phoenix on Jun 13th 2016, dropped engine cowl