China Airlines B738 near Bangkok on Apr 11th 2014, burning smell, smoke and arcing in cabin

Last Update: March 16, 2015 / 17:24:53 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Apr 11, 2014

Classification
Incident

Airline
China Airlines

Flight number
CI-7916

Departure
Yangon, Myanmar

Destination
Taipei, Taiwan

Aircraft Registration
B-18601

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

A China Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration B-18601 performing flight CI-7916 from Yangon (Myanmar) to Taipei (Taiwan) with 155 passengers and 8 crew, was enroute at FL370 about 250nm northwest of Bangkok when the crew noticed a burning odour near the main cabin door 1L, then observed smoke and arcing. While cabin crew discharged fire extinguishers the flight crew diverted the aircraft to Bangkok. The aircraft entered a hold at 6000 feet, climbed to FL100, descended to 7000 feet again to enter another hold and landed safely at Bangkok about 2 hours after leaving FL370.

Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council (ASC) reported the occurrence on Jul 16th 2014 stating that an investigation into the Fire/Smoke occurrence has been opened.

On Mar 16th 2015 Taiwan's ASC released their final report in Chinese concluding the probable causes of the occurrence were:

- There were existing compression situation of forward galley 2 electric wire and the ceiling panel, the normal operation vibration caused the wire rubbing against the ceiling panel. The exposed conducting wire inside the electric wire and graphite fibers inside the ceiling panel rubbing against each other caused short circuit happened between the left side panel and the metal beam. The electric circuit from conducting wire to the right hand side then to the left hand side metal beam panel, the electric circuit formed a short circuit to ground and caused the cabin electric arcing.

- There are 2 probable causes regarding to the situation of the compression between the forward galley 2 electric wire and the ceiling panel.

+ When the aircraft was shop out 16 years ago, the forward galley 2 wire had compressed to the ceiling panel, however, the occurrence did not occur due to the wire wrap was the close type; 8 years ago, the wire wrap was changed to open type when the mechanic re-installed the clamp and wire in accordance with Engineering Order (EO) instruction, at the time the wire had compressed to the ceiling panel directly. The vibration of normal operation caused the electric wire to rubbing against the ceiling panel. The conducting wire inside the electric wire and graphite fibers inside the ceiling panel was exposed and compressed each other.

+ China Airlines did not train the mechanic regarding the positioning marking before remove and reinstall the components when the aircraft was shop out; consequently, the mechanic did not perform positioning marking when the EO was performed 8 years ago. The EO content also did not include the positioning marking step which caused the clamp was installed onto the fore side of the fastener mistakenly lead the wire compressed to the ceiling panel.

The ASC reported that the aircraft was enroute when the cabin crew at position 1R heard a "bang" sound and noticed a burning smell, a passenger pointed to smoke coming from the cabin ceiling. Cabin crew 1R found a dark spot near the door 1L and dripping material. The purser was informed, checked the spot, felt an electrical shock when touching the panel and suspected a hidden fire. While the flight crew initiated a diversion to Bangkok, cabin crew disconnected all power to forward galley #2. Being unable to get behind the panel for identifying the source of the fire, the purser requested the axe from the captain, that is kept in the cockpit, the captain handed the axe to the purser, the purser used the axe to create a hole in the panel, during that process an electrical arc shot about 30cm in length came off the ceiling. The arc ceased after a fire extinguisher was discharged into the hole.