Lufthansa A319 at Munich on Jun 25th 2018, third fume event in 4 days

Last Update: July 10, 2018 / 16:43:08 GMT/Zulu time

Bookmark this article

Photo of Lufthansa D-AILA, Airbus A319 — Lufthansa D-AILA, Airbus A319 (Photo credit: airlines470 / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jun 25, 2018

Classification
Incident

Airline
Lufthansa

Flight number
LH-1988

Departure
Munich, Germany

Destination
Cologne, Germany

Aircraft Registration
D-AILA

Aircraft Type
Airbus A319

ICAO Type Designator
A319

A Lufthansa Airbus A319-100, registration D-AILA performing flight LH-1988 from Munich to Cologne (Germany) with 92 people on board, was in the initial climb out of Munich's runway 26R when the crew donned their oxygen masks, reported fumes on board and decided to return to Munich. The aircraft landed back on Munich's runway 26R about 10 minutes after departure.

The Aviation Herald received information, that this occurrence caused parents to fear for the health of their baby and seek medical assistance for their baby. According to the sources this fume event had been the third fume event in as many (three) days. However, the sources were unable to tell more about the circumstances of the earlier fume events.

The Aviation Herald subsequently researched the flights of the aircraft the previous days with following findings:

On Jun 22nd 2018 D-AILA had done LH-2066 from Munich to Hamburg (Germany), then remained three hours on the ground despite being assigned to a next sector, then positioned from Hamburg to Berlin Tegel, remained an additional 2 hours on the ground in Tegel then returned to service.

On Jun 23rd 2018 D-AILA performed a relatively normal schedule, however, stopped service early at 18:11L at Munich following flight LH-2043 from Berlin Tegel and remained on the ground for 12 hours.

On Jun 24th 2018 D-AILA performed flight LH-2110 from Munich to Bremen (Germany), subsequently remained 3 hours on the ground, positioned to Munich and remained on the ground in Munich for another 23 hours. The next flight was the occurrence flight of Jun 25th.

Following the occurrence of Jun 25th 2018 the aircraft remained on the ground in Munich for 68 hours before returning to service.

The Aviation Herald inquired with the BFU about 4 possible fume events on Jun 22nd 2018, Jun 23rd 2018, Jun 24th 2018 and Jun 25th 2018. On Jul 3rd 2018 the BFU reported in the morning that the occurrences of Jun 22nd, Jun 24th and Jun 25th 2018 had been reported to them, the BFU was looking into the occurrences to collect further information. In the afternoon of Jul 3rd 2018 the BFU followed up reporting that neither of the three reported occurrences was rated an accident or serious incident, no investigation has been opened.

On Jul 9th 2018 the airline reported that while flying through clouds on Jun 22nd 2018 an odour described as chemical or hydraulic was observed for a couple of minutes. The odour could not be reproduced, packs, engines and APU were inspected without findings. On Jun 24th 2018 an odour of old socks was observed about 5-10 minutes after departure and dissipated but re-occurred during the descent. The crew activated the APU and switched the air conditioning to the APU, the odour dissipated. The crew went for medical checks as a precaution and returned to duties without findings. During the return flight without passengers the crew performed several checks and reported the odour occurred as soon as pack #2 operated. Maintenance performed an inspection of air cycle machines and packs, a boroscopic inspection of the APU and high power runs for 30 minutes each on each engine without any finding. The aircraft was released for flight LH-1988/25, however, after departure an odour appeared in the aft cabin and soon expanded throughout the cabin and cockpit. The crew donned their oxygen masks and returned to Munich. The crew went to a hospital, there was no sick leave. A borescopic inspection of the engine #2 as well as the mixing unit was without finding, an engine waterwash was conducted, the #2 pack condenser, reheater and air cycle machine were replaced. Both engine heat exchangers were ordered for replacement, the bleed air system #2 was deactivated under minimum equipment list requirements. A run up test on Jun 30th 2018 still detected odour of oil fumes. The aircraft operated under minimum equipment list requirements until Jul 7th 2018 without further odour event and is now undergoing maintenance which is expected to completely solve the issue.