- ACCIDENT DETAILS
Date: August 20, 2007
Time: 1033
Location: Okinawa, Japan
Operator: China Airlines
Flight #: 120
Route: Taipei - Naha
AC Type: Boeing 737-809
Registration: B-18616
cn / ln: 30175/1182
Aboard: 165   (passengers:157  crew:8)
Fatalities: 0   (passengers:0  crew:0)
Ground: 0
Summary: After a normal landing, the slats were retracted,and the mechanism came to rest as usual against the fuel tank. On the right wing, a stop bolt that had come loose was pushed into the tank, breaching it. The leaking fuel blew away during taxi, but once the plane stopped at the terminal, it spilled straight down and ignited from the engine's hot tailpipe. Everyone was able to evacuate but the plane was destroyed. Boeing, aware of this failure mode due to past incidents, had ordered the nut at the end of the stop bolt to be glued on but to do this, the maintenance technician had to work awkwardly by feel and had inadvertently lost the associated washer that actually retained the bolt in place.
Sources

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