Originally Posted by
RoyMunson
I have on good authority that a bearing disintegrated within the left engine on descent. This caused various eng stall warnings and lead to gaseous engine oil being leaked into the cabin. That is what would cause the 'itchy' throat.
The pictures show incredibly dense white smoke typical of finely dispersed oil particles and very different from the sooty particles you get with fire. I have been through the same as an unaccompanied minor on a VC 10 on take off from BAH when a seal popped on one of the Conways. We landed in Dharan and it took all day to fix but the scary memory of the burning choking smell is still vivid 50 years later. I've done the smoke emergency training at B.A. and the smoke canisters they use at S.E.P. while they give the smoke effect, are really benign compared to this probably for elphinsafety reasons. Surprised the AC didn't appear to have been isolated as a checklist item (appreciate the crew had their hands full). I expect this will ignite the TCP debate again...