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Close call
A close call for all onboard during take-off of ONA 
aircraft N863F, Charter Flight #4655. 

On the evening of June 20, 1973 at Bangor, Maine 
airport, our crew was to meet ONA passenger flight 
coming in from Tampa, FL and fly it on to Europe. 

I did my normal preflight of the aircraft with my 
flashlight as we (F/E’s) always used and everything 
appeared to be normal. On take-off roll before V1 call 
(decision speed for continued Take-Off) we all heard a 
bang, which sounded like a main tire blew. 

The Captain immediately rejected the take-off and 
almost immediately thereafter the tower called and said 
we had sparks coming from our right main gear. 

While reversing the engines and braking the aircraft 
the tower called again and said that we now have a fire 
on our right main gear. We told the tower to call the 
emergency equipment, which he did. 

As the aircraft was coming to a stop, there was a 
taxiway coming up on our left side, which the Captain 
turned off the runway onto and stopped the aircraft. 
He told me to shut down three and four engines and he 
called for aircraft truck steps to be brought out 
immediately to get the passengers off. 

He then said he was going back to the cabin to see 
how bad the fire was. The fire had started feeding off 
the hydraulic fluid from broken brake lines, rubber 
tires and the magnesium wheels, so it was going pretty 
good coming up the right side of the fuselage just aft 
of the trailing edge of the right wing by the cabin 
windows, by the time the airport fire department got
to it.  

I was worried about the other two engines still running 
with people on the ground around the aircraft, which I
informed the Co-Pilot of my concern for their safety. 

About that time the Captain came back in the cockpit and 
said that the Flight Attendants had just initiated the
emergency evacuation, as some passengers had opened the 
left over-wing hatches on their own and a few passengers
were already out on the left wing. 

The Captain told me to shut down the other two engines, 
which I did immediately, then accomplished the secure 
cockpit checklist. After all the passengers were off, the 
Captain and I went through the cabin twice front to back 
with our flashlights to make sure everybody was off, 
meanwhile the flames were still visible out the right 
cabin windows. 

After we finally got off the aircraft the fire department 
was just getting the fire under control and knocked down. 

During this whole fire emergency I kept thinking this 
aircraft is pretty full of fuel in both wings for our flight 
and I kept hoping the fire department could get it out before 
it ignites too, or we’ll have a bigger catastrophe than we 
already have. All our Flight Attendants did a fantastic job 
getting everybody off safely and in a timely manner. 

There were some passenger casualty’s as expected due to 
the evacuation, but no fatalities thank goodness! The 
aircraft a DC-8-63F (N863F) was repaired and put back 
in service.