Lufthansa A388 at Frankfurt and San Francisco on Feb 11th 2018, fumes on board

Last Update: March 5, 2018 / 22:13:13 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 11, 2018

Classification
Incident

Cause
Fumes on board

Airline
Lufthansa

Flight number
LH-454

Departure
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Destination
San Francisco, United States

Aircraft Registration
D-AIML

Aircraft Type
Airbus A380-800

ICAO Type Designator
A388

A Lufthansa Airbus A380-800, registration D-AIML performing flight LH-454 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to San Francisco,CA (USA), was climbing out of Frankfurt about 5 minutes into the flight when a smell of dirty old socks developed in both upper and lower cabin, passengers as well as flight attendants began to complain about the odour, the flight deck was informed. ABout 15 minutes after the odour started the smell dissipated. The flight was continued to San Francisco. Descending into San Francisco the smell of dirty old socks developed again, stronger than during climb out, passengers and cabin crew started coughing, several passengers reported eye irritations and head ache. The aircraft continued for landing on San Francisco's runway 28R. The smell dissipated on touchdown. None of the crew and none of the passengers requested medical assistance.

The aircraft remained on the ground in San Francisco for about 3 hours, then departed for the return flight and suffered fume events again, see Accident: Lufthansa A388 near San Francisco and Frankfurt on Feb 11th 2018, fumes on board.

A passenger reported that the aircraft had been de-iced before departure from Frankfurt. There was an odour of dirty old socks a few minutes after takeoff and later during descent into San Francisco, however, there was no haze or other noticable reduction of visibility. The passenger felt headache developing during the flight, which continued into the next day but then subsided with no other impairment. The passenger did not seek medical assistance. Ground staff in San Francisco guessed, it might have been de-icing fluid.

Following the return flight the aircraft entered scheduled maintenance, an oil leak at engine #3 (Trent 970) was suspected as cause of the odour.

Germany's BFU reported on Mar 5th 2018, that they have been notified about the occurrence, did not rate the occurrence a serious incident or accident and did not open an investigation.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 11, 2018

Classification
Incident

Cause
Fumes on board

Airline
Lufthansa

Flight number
LH-454

Departure
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Destination
San Francisco, United States

Aircraft Registration
D-AIML

Aircraft Type
Airbus A380-800

ICAO Type Designator
A388

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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