Air Conditioning Clamp

[BYALPHAINDIA]

Hi all, just being reading about a few incidents mainly the AEU 733 back in 2004.

The Aircraft was enroute to LBA, When the Aircon clamp went.

I am not an engineer, But I would have thought that there would be a 'back - up' system or such.

It doesn't sound a nice experience descending to 10,000 from 35,000 in about 2 mins, Obviously causing alot of panick & distress.

Putting most pax off flying for life.

Have most commercial jets only got one aircon clamp, Or are some better made than others??

Would have thought Boeing would have ensured that a de - pressurisation was immune from happening??

Been told that an Aircon clamp can fail at any time - just like a clutch on a car.

Pressume that the newer Airbus/Boeing models have full back up Aircon equipment nowadays??

Making de - pressurisation an event of the past.

Just trying to get an idea from a flyer's point of view.;)

[IFixPlanes]

Hi all, just being reading about a few incidents mainly the AEU 733 back in 2004.

The Aircraft was enroute to LBA, When the Aircon clamp went.Can you link your source?

[Engineer_aus]

There is only one clamp joining the ducts together, its common across all types Boeing, Airbus, BAe etc. It sounds like the person who did it up, didn't do it up correctly. or a weld failed, which is not to likely to happen with those clamps.

[jcgooch]

Yup would have to agree clamp failures are not uncommon over the years lot of stress on the joints on some systems, unfortunately very often failures caused by incorrect fitment and torque loading.

[Swedish Steve]

The air conditioning packs are in the unpressurised area, under the centre fuel tank ona B733. There are two of them. At the exit of each pack is a big Non return valve just before the conditioned air is ducted into the pressurised fuselage at the back of the fwd freight bay. There is a duct clamp here at the entry point. This is the only clamp failure that can cause depressurisation, but I would have thought that had both packs been operating then the decompression would have been a bit slower. Any clamp failure in the system before, or after this would not cause this.
There are hundreds of clamps between the engines and the freight bay. They rarely fail and it is only with the help of our friend Murphey that this incident happened.