LAN A343 near Madrid on Feb 6th 2013, odour of tear gas and smoke in cockpit
Last Update: November 25, 2015 / 18:21:18 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Feb 6, 2013
Classification
Incident
Airline
LAN Airlines
Flight number
LA-705
Departure
Madrid, Spain
Destination
Santiago, Chile
Aircraft Registration
CC-CQE
Aircraft Type
Airbus A340-300
ICAO Type Designator
A343
Passengers tweeted that they didn't know why the aircraft returned, gossip running amongst the passengers was smoke in the cabin.
The airline reported the crew received a maintenance alarm prompting the return to Madrid. The passengers were taken to hotels over night and are estimated to depart the following day.
On Mar 4th 2013 the French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin that during climb the crew noticed smoke in the cockpit, donned their oxygen masks, declared emergency and returned to Madrid. There was no damage to the aircraft, Spanish Authorities are investigating the serious incident.
On Jul 5th 2013 the CIAIAC reported, that the aircraft had departed runway 36L and was climbing through FL270 when the crew noticed an odour similiar to tear gas entering the cockpit followed by smoke. The crew donned their oxygen masks, declared emergency and requested an immediate return to Madrid's Barajas Airport. Flight attendants confirmed the presence of smoke in the cabin, too. With the engines at idle during the descent the crew received a "PACK 1 REGULATOR AIR FAULT. PACK 1 IN BYPASS MODE." ECAM message and the smoke began to dissipate. The crew notified ATC that the situation has been brought under control and advised they were going to make an overweight landing. The aircraft landed safely on runway 32R, emergency services checked the landing gear, the aircraft taxied to the gate with emergency services in trail, the passengers disembarked normally. The emergency was cancelled 56 minutes after the crew called Mayday.
On Nov 25th 2015 Spain's CIAIAC released their final report in Spanish concluding the probable cause of the incident was:
the failure of an air cycle machine (ACM) of the #1 air conditioning system which resulted in the generation of smoke. The smoke was distributed throughout cabin and cockpit through the ducts of the air conditioning system.
The CIAIAC analysed that the aircraft was climbing through FL260 when smoke appeared in both cockpit and cabin forcing the crew to don their oxygen masks and return to Madrid. After the automatic shut down of the air cycle machine of the #1 air conditionig system the smoke began to dissipate. After the smoke had dissipated completely the crew was able to continue for a landing without oxygen masks.
The appearance of smoke is considered one of the situations of increased risk, smoke may be toxic. Therefore it is the first action by any crew to safeguard their level of consciousness and to use theeir oxygen masks operating at increased pressure and 100% supply from the oxygen mask. The crew of CC-CQE "had clearly assimilated this concept" and instantly donned their oxygen masks upon appearance of an unknown odour and subsequent smoke. They also clearly stated their emergency situation and requested the return to Madrid. The captain also made contact with cabin crew to assess the situation in the cabin and briefed for a possible evacuation after landing. After 5 minutes 6 seconds, while working the smoke removal checklist which amongst other points had called for the isolation of the ACM of the #1 air conditioning system, the smoke had dissipated and the flight crew was able to remove their oxygen masks.
The aircraft had been dispatched under minimum equipment list requirements with the fuel monitoring and control computer #2 inoperative which prevented a fuel dump. The commander therefore decided to perform an overweight landing. Due to the wind conditions the commander also decided for a manual landing being aware that a vertical rate of less than 360fpm was required due to the overweight condition and any vertical speed above 540fpm would constitute a hard landing. Following a safe touchdown the brakes temperature rose to 430 degrees C during rollout and a smell of hot brakes became noticable in the cockpit.
The positive outcome of the incident was attributable to the flight crew's quick decision to don the oxygen masks, the crew cooperation in dealing with the emergency, the decision to land as soon as possible to avoid new issues, the careful reading and working of the checklists, maintaining standard operating procedures with all callouts and excellent cooperation with the cabin crew to prepare the cabin for landing. Also contributing to the positive outcome was the performance of air traffic control.
The CIAIAC analysed that the decision by the captain to land the aircraft manually might be "discussed". The final authority for this decision is with the commander according to operating manuals by the aircraft manufacturer arguing, that an automatic landing is only certified up to the approved maximum landing weight of the airframe.
The actual fault causing the smoke was the "Air Pack 1 regulator fault, Pack 1 in bypass mode". The manufacturer's manual stated that in the case of the ACM being blocked the air conditioning can be operated in bypass mode providing cooling of the air through a heat exchanger. In following the abnormal checklists the crew enabled the aircraft systems to automatically isolate the ACM #1 and have the pack #1 enter bypass mode, stopping the generation of smoke.
A maintenance inspection revealed the ACM #1 had received damage preventing its normal operation. The ACM #1 was replaced.
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Feb 6, 2013
Classification
Incident
Airline
LAN Airlines
Flight number
LA-705
Departure
Madrid, Spain
Destination
Santiago, Chile
Aircraft Registration
CC-CQE
Aircraft Type
Airbus A340-300
ICAO Type Designator
A343
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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