Easyjet A320 near London on Aug 28th 2014, smoke in cockpit

Last Update: December 11, 2014 / 15:34:16 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Easyjet G-EZWM, Airbus A320 — Easyjet G-EZWM, Airbus A320 (Photo credit: ATom.UK / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Aug 28, 2014

Classification
Incident

Cause
Smoke in cockpit

Airline
Easyjet

Flight number
U2-7215

Departure
Liverpool, United Kingdom

Destination
Naples, Italy

Aircraft Registration
G-EZWM

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

An Easyjet Airbus A320-200, registration G-EZWM performing flight U2-7215 from Liverpool,EN (UK) to Naples (Italy) with 157 passengers and 6 crew, was climbing through FL340 about 50nm northwest of London's Gatwick Airport,EN (UK) when the crew reported smoke in the cockpit and decided to divert to Gatwick Airport for a safe landing on runway 26L about 17 minutes later. Responding emergency services found no trace of fire, heat or smoke.

The airline reported the crew received a smoke indication which was identified false.

A replacement Airbus A320-200 registration G-EZUC reached Naples with a delay of 3 hours.

The occurrence aircraft resumed service about 6.5 hours after landing.

On Sep 10th 2014 the French BEA reported in their monthly bulletin quoting preliminary information provided by the AAIB, that an Airbus A320 with 326 people on board (!!) diverted to London Gatwick because of smoke in the cockpit, identifying the occurrence location and time at London Gatwick at 06:45L (05:45Z) but stating a Portuguese aircraft, without providing a tail number (all details matching G-EZWM except for the Portuguese aircraft). There were no injuries. The British AAIB rated the occurrence an accident (!) and opened an investigation.

Editorial note to BEA report (Sep 10th 2014): Given the reported 326 people on board and the reported Portuguese A320 aircraft (no tail number provided), though all other data match G-EZWM, The Aviation Herald discards the classification as accident as well assuming there has been a mixup of occurrences (there was no second inflight diversion to Gatwick in progress at that time). At this time there is no detail reported that would suggest a classification as accident. At the same time, the fact that the AAIB informed the BEA about this occurrence and the occurrence is being investigated by the AAIB suggests, that the airline's statement was "premature", and the AAIB considers the occurrence at least as incident, possibly serious incident. The AAIB has not yet released any information on the occurrence to the public.

On Dec 11th 2014 the British AAIB released their bulletin rating the occurrence a serious incident, reporting 157 passengers and 6 crew and reporting the crew received a "AVIONICS SMOKE" warning and could see smoke emanating from the right side of the center console inside the first officer's footwell. The smoke ceased during the descent back to London's Gatwick Airport. A component in a static inverter powering electrical outlet sockets in the cockpit was found overheated.

The AAIB reported that the aircraft was climbing through FL320 when the first officer noticed an odd odour, the captain could not smell anything and used the surveillance camera to check the galley whether cabin crew was cooking anything. When he pressed the interphone call button to talk to the lead flight attendant, he noticed smoke coming from the right of the center console near the first officer's knee. The captain told the lead flight attendant he would call back, both pilots donned their oxygen masks. An "AVIONICS SMOKE" indication on the ECAM together with an amber "SMOKE" light on the "GEN 1 LINE" pushbutton and "FAULT" captions on the "BLOWER" and "EXTRACT" buttons appeared. The captions and lights extinguished after about a minute, the smoke however continued. The crew declared PAN, commenced a descent and worked the "AVIONICS SMOKE" checklist. The commander handed control of the aircraft as well as communication duties over to the first officer while he worked the related checklists, informed cabin crew and passengers and reprogrammed the FMGS for the return to Gatwick.

During the descent the smoke stopped, the aircraft landed without further event on Gatwick's runway 26L. Emergency services attended to the aircraft and escorted the aircraft to a remote stand, where passengers disembarked normally. After engine shut down the crew removed their oxygen masks. Emergency services did not find any hot spots.

Engineers subsequently found a static inverter showed significant burn marks and replaced the inverter. The inverter was sent to the manufacturer for further examinations, the manufacturer identified a capacitor had been destroyed by overheating, the destruction preventing to determine the exact reason for its failure. The AAIB stated summarizing the statement of the manufacturer: "They consider this failure was an isolated incident but advise that they will monitor the reliability of the static invertors."