WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – A fuel cap that fell from an airplane into a Winter Garden family’s backyard has exposed an issue with certain jets flying out of Orlando International Airport.
Dara Hackett called News 6 moments after the part fell from the sky, pierced her screened porch and nicked the bottom of her swimming pool in 2019.
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“It sounded like a gunshot -- that initial pop ting noise and then a splash,” Dara Hackett said. “I could have been killed.”
Which plane the fuel cap came from remained a mystery.
“It took forever to get a response from the FAA,” said her husband, Bill Hackett. “That took months.”
The Hacketts said they received the answer they were looking for from the Federal Aviation Administration in the form of internal emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Those emails reveal just one week after the incident, the Orlando Flight Standards Division identified the plane as a JetBlue passenger plane.
According to FAA records, flight 2825 departed from Orlando International Airport on Aug. 1, 2019, bound for Mexico City.
JetBlue records showed that is where a worker discovered the fuel cap on the plane was missing.
“We haven’t heard a word since then,” Dara Hackett said. “Nothing. Not a word. Not an oops. Nothing.”
News 6 investigated the airplane the fuel cap fell from, an Airbus 320, and uncovered that model was the subject of a safety alert, which was issued by the FAA in 2016.
It warned of “a safety issue involving fuel caps separating from the aircraft during operations.”
Records obtained by News 6 revealed the FAA has received 56 reports of broken or missing fuel caps between 2015 and 2021.
Twenty-two of those incidents involved Airbus planes, and 15 were Airbus 320.
JetBlue said the company has made changes to make sure it does not happen again.
“Safety is JetBlue’s first priority, and we ensure our company complies with all safety regulations related to our aircraft and their maintenance,” said Derek Dombrowski, JetBlue corporate communications manager. “We worked with the Federal Aviation Administration and followed all the required steps to investigate after a fuel cap was discovered missing from an aircraft that landed in Mexico City on August 1, 2019. Nearly two years later, we continue to follow the FAA’s safety guidance and have added additional measures to ensure fuel caps are properly secured.”
News 6 repeatedly sent emails to Airbus to see what steps the manufacturer has taken to prevent future incidents, and none of the emails were answered.
The Hacketts said two years later, they are still waiting for someone from JetBlue to contact them.
They said they do not want money; they want an apology.