Sichuan A320 near Harbin on Mar 27th 2024, dual generator failure

Last Update: April 21, 2026 / 16:50:20 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 27, 2024

Classification
Report

Airline
Sichuan Airlines

Flight number
3U-8471

Departure
Chengdu, China

Destination
Harbin, China

Aircraft Registration
B-6321

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

A Sichuan Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration B-6321 performing flight 3U-8471 from Chengdu to Harbin (China), was in the initial descent towards Harbin when the crew received indication the right hand generator (engine V2527) had failed and started the APU. During startup of the APU the left hand generator also failed causing the aircraft to enter emergency electric configuration. After the APU had started, the left hand generator successfully reset, the aircraft exited the emergency electrical configuration and continued for a safe landing at Harbin.

China's CAAC released their final report in Chinese only (Editorial note: to serve the purpose of global prevention of the repeat of causes leading to an occurrence an additional timely release of all occurrence reports in the only world spanning aviation language English would be necessary, a Chinese only release does not achieve this purpose as set by ICAO annex 13 and just forces many aviators to waste much more time and effort each in trying to understand the circumstances leading to the occurrence. Aviators operating internationally are required to read/speak English besides their local language, investigators need to be able to read/write/speak English to communicate with their counterparts all around the globe).

The report concludes the probable causes of the serious incident were:

The direct cause of this incident was: During the initial descent phase, a sudden failure occurred due to burnout of the excitation coil in Generator No. 2. During APU startup, the load on Generator No. 1 increased further.

Due to the resistance of Generator No. 1’s excitation rotor coil exceeding the specified limit, significant fluctuations in excitation current and output voltage triggered a protective power cut-off, causing the aircraft to briefly enter the emergency electrical configuration.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 27, 2024

Classification
Report

Airline
Sichuan Airlines

Flight number
3U-8471

Departure
Chengdu, China

Destination
Harbin, China

Aircraft Registration
B-6321

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

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