British Airways A319 at London on Dec 20th 2019, fumes on the flight deck

Last Update: December 21, 2019 / 21:07:00 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of British Airways G-EUPY, Airbus A319 — British Airways G-EUPY, Airbus A319 (Photo credit: kitmasterbloke / Flickr / License: CC by)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Dec 20, 2019

Classification
Incident

Airline
British Airways

Flight number
BA-902

Departure
London Heathrow, United Kingdom

Destination
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Aircraft Registration
G-EUPY

Aircraft Type
Airbus A319

ICAO Type Designator
A319

A British Airways Airbus A319-100, registration G-EUPY performing flight BA-902 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany), was climbing out of Heathrow's runway 09R when the crew declared PAN PAN reporting fumes in the cockpit, stopped the climb at 7000 feet and decided to return to Heathrow. The aircraft landed safely on Heathrow's runway 09L about 25 minutes after departure.

The airline reported a "suspected minor technical issue" prompted the return to Heathrow as a precaution.

A passenger reported a few minutes after departure a short announcement was made that the senior flight attendant should contact the flight deck via intercom. The flight attendants subsequently closed the curtains dividing galley and cabin. About 15 minutes into the flight the captain made another announcement that they had fumes in the cockpit and were returning to Heathrow. The passenger reported: "He was visibly breathing through oxygen mask every few seconds during PA." About 10 minutes later they landed, the aircraft vacated the runway and stopped. The captain advised ground crew was inspecting the aircraft. The aircraft subsequently taxied to the apron. The captain announced local police needed to check the cockpit as per local procedures before the passengers could disembark. The captain subsequently came out of the cockpit and made an announcement in the cabin before the passengers explaining that shortly after takeoff they started smelling fumes in the cockpit, they worked the related checklists to isolate this from the cabin, the smell grew stronger in the cockpit so that they had to don their oxygen masks. They obviously couldn't continue to Frankfurt with this aircraft and returned to Heathrow. Maintenance would now check the aircraft. The captain ended the announcement with the assurance that the fumes hadn't spread to the cabin. The passenger confirmed that indeed he hadn't smelled anything unusual (except for the kersosene smell during engine start). A few minutes later they disembarked, received food vouchers and were redirected onto the replacement flight.

A replacement A319-100 registration G-EUPE reached Frankfurt with a delay of 4 hours.

On Dec 21st 2019 The Aviation Herald received information both pilots detected the smell of solvent/chemical/rubber nature while climbing through 1500 feet. Cabin crew reported they could not smell anything in the cabin including forward galley. Despite completing the relevant checklists the smell intensified prompting the crew to don their oxygen masks, declare PAN and return to Heathrow.