Thomson B752 near London on Jul 8th 2017, smoke injures 3 cabin crew

Last Update: March 9, 2018 / 15:07:33 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Thomson Airways G-OOBC, Boeing 757-200 — Thomson Airways G-OOBC, Boeing 757-200 (Photo credit: Alec BHX/KKC / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jul 8, 2017

Classification
Incident

Airline
Thomson Airways

Flight number
BY-2616

Departure
Manchester, United Kingdom

Destination
Girona, Spain

Aircraft Registration
G-OOBC

Aircraft Type
Boeing 757-200

ICAO Type Designator
B752

A Thomson Boeing 757-200, registration G-OOBC performing flight BY-2616 from Manchester,EN (UK) to Girona,SP (Spain) with 201 passengers and 8 crew, was enroute at FL390 about 10nm southwest of London Gatwick,EN (UK) when the crew reported smoke in the cabin and decided to divert to Gatwick for a safe landing on runway 26L about 22 minutes later.

Passengers reported smoke emanated from a galley, supposedly an oven caught fire. Three cabin crew suffered from smoke inhalation.

The airport reported the crew reported smoke in the cabin, three cabin crew needed to be treated for smoke inhalation at the airport.

The airline reported the aircraft diverted to London Gatwick as precaution, the aircraft was met by emergency services in line with standard operating procedures to investigate the cause of the smoke. Another crew arrived to replace three cabin crew, who were checked by medics as a precaution. The aircraft was examined and was found safe to continue the flight.

The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground for 5:20 hours, then continued the flight and reached Girona with a delay of 6 hours.

On Mar 8th 2018 the AAIB released their bulletin confirming three crew received minor injuries and were taken to a hospital for assessment. The AAIB reported:

Examination of the forward galley ovens confirmed that a fluid was present in the interior of both ovens. The ovens were removed from the aircraft for cleaning and testing. Inspection of the ovens in the rear galley showed that they were contaminated with a similar fluid. The rear galley ovens were cleaned and the ovens operated to ensure that they did not produce smoke. The fluid in both the forward and rear galley ovens was found to be a degreasing fluid, commonly used for removing chewing gum from carpets, and not the approved oven cleaning fluid.

The aircraft ovens had been ‘deep cleaned’ 48 hours prior to the incident flight and the incident flight was the first time the aircraft had operated since the ‘deep clean’. The aircraft operator and the contracted aircraft cleaning company reviewed the approved oven cleaning instructions and confirmed that they were unambiguous and make reference to the use of the correct cleaning fluid. An investigation carried out by the cleaning company appeared to confirm that the ‘deep clean’ had been completed in accordance with the approved cleaning instructions, that the correct fluid had been used and that it was not possible to identify when or how the ovens became contaminated with the degreasing fluid.