Flybe de-pressurisation...

[embdcb]

Flying in the solent area today heard Solent doing a fantastic job helping Jersey (884 I think) burn off fuel prior landing at Southampton after a "cabin pressuriation incident". Nothing on the local news though, does anyone know if all turned out ok?

[Nineiron]

Probably a few well practiced drills dealt with the situation. We would only have heard anything if they didn't.

[ILS 119.5]

Don't know about a flybe, but did hear something similar over the r/t of a jet2 burning off fuel over the channel and then returning to LBA with some sort of problem. I think it was the Alicante flight.

[aeftutor]

It was the FlyBe Southampton-Prague BE1881 It was on the climbout at around 11/12000ft when it lost pressurisation. Despite the masks dropping, it returned to SOU without incident. The only potential injury was to the F/O who complained about ear problems after landing. The passengers continued on another a/c.

[satis 5]

almost right,
the aircraft did not depressurise.:ok:
a/c climbed and so did cabin.

[Kaddyuk]

Its good to see that saftey drills work. They are the things that we hope never to use but put alot of effort in learning them.

[MOR]

the aircraft did not depressurise. a/c climbed and so did cabin.

So in fact it DID depressurise, just not explosively... :rolleyes:

[JW411]

I think he means that the cabin was never pressurised in the first place.

[RAT 5]

For my tuppeny worth, that's why it is a good idea to check pressurisation at Flaps Up, to avoid the rubber jungle at 14000. It happened to me once, no pressurisation, noticed it during this check, and we levelled at the SID cap and returned.

Often it is in the after takeoff checks, but my airline did these at FL100, which might have been too late. I wonder what FLYBe do? If everything was OK during After Takeoff checks below FL100, what caused the depressuriastion? Perhaps they also do them at higher level.

[Smokie]

146 After take off checks:-

Gear Up lights Out.
Flaps Up.
TMS. As required.
Eng Airs On.
APU Air Off.
Packs On (& Pressurising.)
Cabin Crew release.
Galley Power On.


Hope this helps.

[NoJoke]

I feel. You feel. We feel. If it's going up so are our ears. No problem.

[MOR]

I think he means that the cabin was never pressurised in the first place.

Indeed. So what actually happened was, aircraft climbed, cabin pressure dropped - it de-pressurised from sea-level to 10K or whatever.

Having said that, hard to see how they could ignore the "cabin alt" warning that comes long before the rubber jungle drops (warning at 10K from memory, rubber jungle at 14K).

Sounds as though the antique pressure controller failed during the climb. This can happen if one of the internal bellows ruptures.

[JW411]

I have seen a similar event twice in my career.

On the first occasion the Auto function of the pressure controller had failed and due to a combination of crap weather and a heavy ATC environment this wasn't noticed until the Cabin Hi Alt light came on. Selecting Manual pressurisation quickly solved the problem.

On the other occasion the F/E quite simply forgot to put the packs on after take-off!

In neither of these occasions was there a loss of cabin pressure for the cabin had climbed at the same rate as the aircraft so there was no pressure to lose.

Likewise the cabin altitude was exactly the same as the aircraft altitude.

[puddle-jumper2]

JW411, Quite correct. :ok:

In order to lose pressure you have to have it in the first place.- (ie. cabin is lower than A/C). A cabin that climbs with the A/C is therefore NOT PRESSURIZED and therefore doesn't suffer a de-pressurization.

MOR - to answer your query about 'rubber jungle' - I believe it was one of the manual drop out A/C and therefore the rubber jungle wouldn't have automatically come out at 14000'. presumably it was deployed as part of the drills - don't know what altitude this was done though. - belt and braces :O