Eastern Airways AT72 at Leeds on Oct 9th 2022, fumes in cockpit

Last Update: January 11, 2024 / 16:19:53 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Oct 9, 2022

Classification
Incident

Airline
Eastern Airways

Flight number
T3-9634

Departure
London Biggin Hill, United Kingdom

Destination
Leeds, United Kingdom

Aircraft Type
ATR ATR-72-200

ICAO Type Designator
AT72

An Eastern Airways Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212A, registration G-CMFI performing flight T3-9634 from London Biggin Hill,EN to Leeds,EN (UK) with the soccer team of Leeds United on board, was on approach to Leeds' runway 14 when the crew reported fumes in the cockpit and declared emergency. The aircraft continued for a safe landing, vacated the runway, crew and passengers performed a rapid disembarkation after landing.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Leeds for 5 days before returning to service.

Britain's AAIB reported the aircraft performed a rapid disembarkation on the maneouvering area of Leeds Airport due to fumes in the cockpit. There were no injuries and no damage to the aircraft. The occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated by the AAIB.

On Jan 11th 2024 the AAIB released their final bulletin concluding.

The source of the fumes was confirmed to be the failure of static inverter 1. There was a Technical Progress Status report published by the manufacturer and an associated Airworthiness Operator Message indicating previous failures of static inverters which were not seen by the operator before the event. The operator introduced new procedures to ensure future AOM’s will be treated as safety bulletins.

A rapid disembarkation was carried out in the absence of a specific procedure. The operator intends to introduce additional checklists and guidance for crews choosing to conduct a rapid disembarkation in future.

The AAIB analysed:

Source of fumes

The static inverter failure mode involved in this occurrence was identified by ATR and its supplier in 2017. The topic was communicated to the operator through a TPS report, VSB, and an AOM. These do not require mandatory operator action and the topic was addressed through an AD. The operator was not aware of the incidence of failures. The new procedure introduced by the operator, requiring AOM’s to be read and assessed for relevance to their fleet, is intended to avoid information of this nature being overlooked in future.

Rapid disembarkation

There was no procedure for rapid disembarkation with engines running, and the guidance on when it might be appropriate to do so was incomplete. The OMB suggested it may be prudent in some circumstances to implement a rapid disembarkation instead of an evacuation but did not provide detail. In the absence of a clear procedure the crew elected to keep the number 2 engine in Hotel mode, where the risks of doing so were not explicitly considered.

The cabin crew and passengers were not made aware of the operating engine on the right side of the aircraft as they disembarked. The commander did not make a PA to the passengers, as required by the guidance which was available in the Operations Manual Part B, and the risk of losing control of the passengers once they had deplaned was not considered in this context. By not disembarking themselves, the pilots were not present to manage the post-disembarkation phase of the occurrence. This may have created additional ambiguity around who held responsibility for the passenger’s safety in a high-risk environment. As it was not considered an evacuation, the ‘Post Evacuation’ section of OMB was not expressly applicable, although this guidance may be as relevant in this scenario as if a full evacuation had taken place.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Oct 9, 2022

Classification
Incident

Airline
Eastern Airways

Flight number
T3-9634

Departure
London Biggin Hill, United Kingdom

Destination
Leeds, United Kingdom

Aircraft Type
ATR ATR-72-200

ICAO Type Designator
AT72

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