British Airways B773 near Shannon on Aug 24th 2019, suspected fire on board

Last Update: February 14, 2020 / 17:43:52 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of British Airways G-STBB, Boeing 777-300 — British Airways G-STBB, Boeing 777-300 (Photo credit: hugh llewelyn / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Aug 24, 2019

Classification
Incident

Airline
British Airways

Flight number
BA-179

Departure
London Heathrow, United Kingdom

Destination
New York JFK, United States

Aircraft Registration
G-STBB

Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-300

ICAO Type Designator
B773

A British Airways Boeing 777-300, registration G-STBB performing flight BA-179 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to New York JFK,NY (USA), was enroute at FL340 about 90nm north of Shannon (Ireland) when the crew declared PAN PAN reporting they suspected a fire on board in the aft cabin. The crew decided to divert to Shannon and dump fuel while heading direct towards to Shannon's approach fix for the ILS runway 24. The aircraft entered a hold at FL060 to complete dumping fuel and continued for a safe landing on runway 24 about 35 minutes after leaving FL340. Emergency services checked the aircraft, but found no trace of fire, heat or smoke. The aircraft taxied to the apron.

Passengers reported an acrid burning odour developed in the aft cabin, it was believed a galley oven in the aft galley emitted the odour and smoke, cabin crew disconnected electrical power from the galleys. They were taken to hotels and rebooked onto other flights.

The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground for about 5 hours, then positioned to London Gatwick,EN (UK).

On Feb 13th 2020 the AAIB released their brief bulletin stating (in its entirety):

Whilst in the initial part of the cruise, the captain was called by the senior cabin crew member informing him that there was a suspected fire in the aft galley. Shortly afterwards the cabin crew member confirmed that blue smoke was emanating from the oven unit. The cabin crew carried out their fire drill and the flight crew completed the ‘smoke, fire or fumes’ checklist. The flight crew then informed ATC of the event.

After electrically isolating the aft galley the rate of smoke production reduced; however, smoke remained in the area. The captain made the decision to divert to Shannon, where an uneventful overweight landing and disembarkation took place. There were no injuries to any of the passengers.

Examination of the aft galley oven by the operator’s engineers found that an electrical fault in an oven fan unit had caused the smoke. The fan unit was replaced and the aircraft returned to service. No further investigation of the oven fan unit was conducted by the operator.