Lufthansa A320 near Budapest on Jul 31st 2014, acrid smell on board

Last Update: August 5, 2014 / 21:07:17 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jul 31, 2014

Classification
Incident

Airline
Lufthansa

Flight number
LH-1788

Departure
Munich, Germany

Destination
Bodrum, Turkey

Aircraft Registration
D-AIPK

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

A Lufthansa Airbus A320-200, registration D-AIPK performing flight LH-1788 from Munich (Germany) to Bodrum (Turkey), was enroute at FL350 about 130nm south of Budapest (Hungary) in Serbian Airspace when the crew reported an unusual odour and decided to divert to Budapest. On approach to Budapest the crew advised they expected a normal landing but declined the offer to land on runway 13L into the wind indicating they could accept 7 knots of tailwind on ILS approach to runway 31R (opposite to the active runway). The aircraft landed safely on runway 31R about 17 (!) minutes after turning towards Budapest and leaving FL350. Two cabin crew became incapacitated as result of the occurrence. All crew went to see the doctor after landing.

The airline confirmed an unusual odour on board caused the precautionary diversion to Budapest.

Passengers reported an acrid smell on board of the aircraft causing all sort of irritations despite attempts to filter the air with cloth before mouth and nose. Cabin crew were wearing protective masks.

A replacement A320-200 registration D-AIPA, that had arrived in Budapest as regular flight LH-1678 from Munich to Budapest, resumed the flight LH-1788 and reached Bodrum with a delay of 5:45 hours.

On Aug 5th 2014 the French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin that after takeoff cabin crew observed smell in the aft galley, both galley ovens were switched off, but the smell continued and filled half of the cabin in the back of the aircraft. The crew decided to divert to Budapest, two cabin crew became incapacitated as result of the smell. All crew members were taken to hospitals. Hungary's KBSZ opened an investigation.

The airline reported to a German mass media (who as the only newspaper across Germany took over that statement), that a passenger had dropped a phial with nail cleaning fluid causing the acid smell, but did not mention, that the very same aircraft had suffered two more similiar fume events on flights LH-2502 from Munich (Germany) to Manchester,EN (UK) on Jul 14th 2013 and LH-2229 from Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) to Munich on Jul 23rd 2014 (the details of these two occurrences still under investigation by The Aviation Herald, but the actual occurrences are already fully confirmed by evidence on hand).
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jul 31, 2014

Classification
Incident

Airline
Lufthansa

Flight number
LH-1788

Departure
Munich, Germany

Destination
Bodrum, Turkey

Aircraft Registration
D-AIPK

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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