BA Flight diverted to Shannon after reports of smoke on board

vicwatson

http://www.thejournal.ie/transatlantic-flight-diverted-to-shannon-after-smell-of-smoke-on-board-336748-Jan2012/

Tenger

Aviation Herald report:
http://www.avherald.com/h?article=449c83f8&opt=0

A British Airways Boeing 777-200, registration G-VIIL performing flight BA-297 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA), was enroute at FL360 over the Atlantic Ocean about 400nm west of Ireland when smoke became visible in the cabin. The crew declared PAN, turned around, descended the aircraft to FL270 and diverted to Shannon (Ireland). On the way back the aircraft dumped fuel, the crew reported they believed they had dealt with the issue that they believed was an air conditioning re-circulation fan. The re-circulation fan was turned off, the smoke dissipated shortly thereafter, however, the crew requested a full turn out of emergency services to check for any indication of smoke on the outside of the aircraft. The aircraft landed safely on Shannon's runway 24 about 70 minutes after turning around and stopped on the runway where emergency services checked the aircraft.

The runway was closed for about 10 minutes.A replacement Boeing 777-200 registration G-YMMN reached Chicago with a delay of 9 hours.

Skuxx

Saw this landing today, was wondering what the problem was. Its not everyday we see a BA that size in shannon!!!

xflyer

Remember when I worked for a cargo airline in Ops. Apart from the crew the 727 had three jumpseats and I remember organising it so that an Air Traffic Controller to get one.

Sitting in my office later, the phone rang. It was ATC, 'What are the souls on board your flight, it's returning with smoke in the cockpit.' I nearly died on the spot. Mad dash to the parking spot and waited with the fire crew. I think I was second onto the flight deck after the Fire Chief.

Smoke in the cabin is one of the scariest things you can imagine. It could be nothing or it could be the start of something very bad indeed.

Irish Steve

xflyer wrote: »

Smoke in the cabin is one of the scariest things you can imagine. It could be nothing or it could be the start of something very bad indeed.

Indeed. The worrying aspect is just how often these sorts of incident are happening. There's very few days without a smoke incident reported somewhere, (Aviation herald is a good source of factual information), and they seem to fall into several categories. This time of the year, de ice/Anti Ice fluid somewhere it wasn't supposed to be is a favourite, something missed in a galley oven is pretty common, and then In flight entertainment, windscreen Heater connectors and fans in the avionics bay seem to be regular favourites. Again fortunately, most of the incidents are minor, so the outcome is good, but there is and probably will continue to be the occasional fatal incident which justifies the very rapid and aggressive response to smoke. Again fortunately, often, there is smoke without fire, in some respects, calling it smoke is misleading, but at least that's a common term that is understood by all.

As far as anti ice is concerned, I'm not sure which is the better solution. The issue is that anti ice fluid gets put where it's not appropriate, or migrates into those places during the take off roll. The two choices would appear to be having a system on the aircraft to allow the external air intake to be positively closed off for a period of time, which would make for complications with cabin air conditioning, and more importantly pressurisation, change the design of the air inflow to reduce the flow of anti ice fluid into the cabin air system, or have a better way of training anti ice operators to make sure that they know where the air intakes are on the different types, and take active steps to avoid putting excess fluid into those areas.

In Flight Entertainment is a problem, in that it uses power, lots of it, and in some cases, retrofits were done in a way that caused problems (SR111) that are fortunately now no longer an issue, most modern designs now have the IFE systems designed in from new, and things like power and signal distribution are better managed, (in passing, as Self loading freight, I HATE losing significant foot space under the seat in front of me to a large box that is part of the IFE, and for some reason, the 777 is a clear culprit in that respect, a longhaul to Atlanta a few years ago was very uncomfortable because of the size and position of said box) and more importantly, the IFE power bus can be shed to slow down or stop an incident much more easily than used to be the case.

Slightly off topic, but not, is the issue of having "suitable" airfields in the right parts of the world that can handle, manage and accomodate large aircraft such as the 777, or larger, like the 380, and all it's implications.

If Shannon didn't exist, there's no way that a runway that size would now be built in that part of the world, the justification for it would not be there, in many respects, it's a historic anomaly that happened because older aircraft didn't have the range or performance to make the Atlantic in one hop, far from it, whereas now, LA non stop to Europe and beyond is possible, but, if you NEED a runway in a hurry, it's nice to know that places like Shannon are there, and available, and again, it's interesting to look at the statistics of how many flights divert into Shannon for technical reasons.

It's another of those hair splitting moments, the subtle difference between nearest "available" and "suitable", there are times when for operational reasons, nearest "suitable" can sometimes be several hours flying time, or even a return to departure point, whereas available means exactly that, get the thing on the deck ASAP, and worry about the consequences afterwards.

It has to be considered, something like a 777 or an A380 requires a lot of equipment that may well not be available at most airfields, suitable height and size steps, (the 777 is one of the highest aircraft in use) suitable power push back tugs and towbars, even things like a stand that's large enough without impinging on the stands either side of the allocated stand, all of these are factors, especially if the aircraft is full, and has to be unloaded, and maybe even unloaded relatively quickly. Even things like the availability and size of the emergency response facilities have to be considered.

An emergency evacutation using slides is going to cause all sorts of hassles, a forest of paperwork, an aircraft that's going nowhere until it's been reset in terms of slides replaced, about 3% of passengers with an injury of some sort, and even issues of getting the aircraft moved around, all of these are a real factor in determining the difference between "available" and "suitable". For the larger types, a long runway helps, especially when they may be significantly above the normal landing weight, putting it down gently is one issue, stopping it can be another, so the more length available, the better for all concerned.

For all of these reasons, and because of it's geographic location, Shannon gets a lot more diversions than most places, and if it's correctly managed, that's a very good thing for the peace of mind of the travelling public. For the local spotters, it also makes for interesting photographs:D;)