Rubber Jungled Thomsonfly 737 Divert to BCN

[Jet2]

From the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/4554679.stm

Plane fault causes forced landing

A flight from the newly-opened Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire had to make an emergency landing after losing cabin pressure.

The Thomsonfly flight to Alicante was forced to divert to Barcelona during Monday afternoon's incident.

Passenger Carol Mee from Shirebrook in Derbyshire said: "Everyone was traumatised - people were screaming, including a pregnant lady."

A spokeswoman for Thomson said "a thorough investigation" is under way.

The plane landed safely at Barcelona and the 126 passengers were taken by coach to Alicante - a 345-mile journey.

The spokeswoman said: "There was a pressure change in the cabin caused by a technical fault in the air conditioning system.

"As a result the oxygen masks automatically came down.

"The captain made the decision to make an early landing at Barcelona, where the alarm was raised and emergency procedures enacted."

Mrs Mee said she was "terrified" by the experience.

She added that the passengers were delayed in Barcelona for four hours before their eight-hour trip to Alicante.

The Thompson spokeswoman said: "As passenger safety is Thomsonfly's most important concern we will be conducting a detailed and thorough investigation of the aircraft systems."

[ElNino]

Yet another example of a world in which clueless emotional hysteria is the only valid reaction to anything from world war to a celebrities new dress. :rolleyes:

[fastjet2k]

"Everyone was traumatised - people were screaming, including a pregnant lady."

Gosh, if the pregnant lady was screaming it must have been bad. Just be grateful that the fat lady wasn't singing :mad:

[keel beam]

The pax must have missed the safety demo with regards to oxygen masks!

[Fried_Chicken]

Gosh, if the pregnant lady was screaming it must have been bad. Just be grateful that the fat lady wasn't singing

Perhaps she was just getting in some practice for when the little one comes along?

FC

[birdstrike]

It gets worse.

BBC East Midlands Today (which doesn't normally even cover the Doncaster area), sent a reporter and film crew to Robin Hood airport. As well as covering the details as given in the original post, the wally of a reporter managed to infer that as this was apparently the second recent incident involving an aircraft which had departed from Robin Hood, the airport itself could in some way be at fault.

I never thought I would see the day when BBC reporting makes the Daily Sport seem responsible! All we need now is for David Learmonth to chip in with his usual c**p.

[hottowel]

Just watched Calender local news on Yorkshire Television, there was no mention of the rubber jungle... they mainly focused on the cabin crew in panic over smoke coming from the back galley and not being able to turn the galley electrics off.... Apparently the crew were screaming aroud the cabin telling passengers not to panic...
In full respect to the crew involved I think this is another case of the "Gold Glamour Sandal Wearing and matching Handbag" over reacting and making more of a mountain out of a mole hill

[7006 fan]

Ah, the travelling public and news reporters. Where would we be without them, wish they would concentrate on factual reporting rather than trying to make the news. Most journos need a reality check but...hey ho.
Bit like a journo winding someone up so much they get thumped and then write a front page splash about it.
:yuk:

[Kestrel_909]

Does screaming use up more oxygen?:E

[Turn It Off]

If the change in cabin pressure was that bad would you hear them screaming??!!!!

[cwatters]

Perhaps pax should be made to sit an exam before flying?...

Q1: In the event of a loss of cabin air pressure should you:

a) Phone the Guardian
b) Phone the Sun
c) Order another free Martini
d) Use the condensation cloud and your new laser pen to impersonate Luke Skywalker.

[JohnnyRocket]

Okay... i know that most of you are pilots on this forum or know a lot about planes... but i just dont understand why there is so much flippancy towards the BBC report and overall incident.

Please can someone explain?

I am a regular flyer, but i have to say, i dont think I would like it if all of a sudden the oxygen masks came down and your ears started to hurt like hell and you were 35,000ft up.

I wouldn't like it.

I wouldn't actually know what to think. And having never been (and hopefully never) in that situation, i wouldn't know what the problem was, how it was caused or if we were going to be okay.

So rather than make fun of people - who really were just on a holiday jet... i'd like to know a bit more about it... and maybe tell me why this might have happened or if it was serious or not.

And for the BBC to cover it - well, so what! The report was only on LOCAL TV - and on the website... it would be in most newspapers as an aside anyway - and what with the holiday season coming up and the airport only having just opened... its insteresting.

The report never once suggested Robin Hood airport was at fault. It just made the point that it was newly opened. Fact. I would however have liked to have known what may have caused it - and that was not mentioned in the report.

[apaddyinuk]

I hear a pensioner screamed during a bank robbery recently....SKY NEWS WERE FIRST TO REPORT THE FACT!!!

[Joyce Tick]

Johhny Rocket - this is what most likely happened...

The crew forgot two little switches, each about 1cm long, which turn on the pressurisation. At 10,000 ft the rubber jungle popped out as it is designed to do when the aircraft loses pressure, or it wasn't switched on in the first place. It's been done a few times before and will probably be done again - pilots are only human and can make the odd mistake...probably why everyone's making a joke about it here- to cover any possible embarrassment!

[stalling attitude]

Joyce,

they were on route from the uk to ALC and diverted into BCN so i don't think that they did as you suggest and forgot to pressurise unless they took a long time to get to 14,000 feet

[FakePilot]

Shsssh Joyce! If they find out about the shortcut housing prices will skyrocket in Spain from all the London commuters.

[ElNino]

unless they took a long time to get to 14,000 feet

Maybe they were in a 146 ;)

[Old King Coal]

JohnnyRocket to (hopefully) answer your question:

Under normal circumstances the engines provide 'bleed air' ( air which is tapped off the engine ) which, having then been processed though the airconditioning packs, is fed into the cabin.

The pressure of the air within the cabin is controlled by a valve in the side of the aircraft ( usually to the rear of the fuselage ) which modulates (opens & closes) to adjust the pressure within the cabin.

At normal jet airliner crusing levels, the pressure of the air within the cabin is typically adjusted such that it will provide a cabin altitude of approx 6,000 ft - 8,000 ft ( depending upon aircraft type ) and such that the pressure differential between the inside and outside of the aircraft is not so great as to cause a structural failure of the fuselage. The cabin, contrary to popular belief, is NOT pressurised to sea-level / 0ft altitude ( as this would require an overly engineered, read 'heavy', construction to cope with the pressure differential between the inside & outside of the aircraft ).

So what happens if the pressurisation system can't maintain the cabin altitude, e.g. maybe due to a failure of the pressure controlling valve, or perhaps a burst seal ( e.g. around a door or cargo hold), or even a window / fuselage failure ?

Typically, if there's a problem with the aircraft pressurisation system a horn (much like like that of a bus reversing) will sound as the cabin altitude passes above 10,000 ft; Aside from earache, flatulence and the like, this is the first system generated warning the flight crew will get to say that something is wrong.
If the depressurisation happens quickly enough ( aka, 'an explosive decompression' - which, imho, happens to be an unfortunate term usually meaning no more that it all happens 'very quickly' - rather than that explosives are involved, albeit that they might ) then one might observe 'misting / fogging' in the cabin as any water vapour condenses out out of the cabin air, water in coffee pots might also start to boil ( as the pressure reduces above the surface of the liquid ), etc.

If nothing is done ( or nothing can be done ) to correct why the pressurisation system is unable to keep the cabin pressure below a 10,000 ft then, as the cabin altitude rises (typically) above 14,000ft, the passenger Oxygen masks will automatically deploy in the cabin.

The passenger O2 masks ( which are supplied by a chemical oxygen generator - there's one above each row of passenger seats ), once activated - which is what happens when you "pull the mask towards you" - will typically provide O2 for at least 12 minutes ( which is more than long enough for the flight crew to descend the aircraft down to a 'breathable' level ).

Nb. When activated these chemical O2 generators get very hot and this can lead to a smell much like that of a hot iron pervading throughout the cabin.

If unable to control the cabin altitude the flight crew will commence the emergency descent procedure. This involves ensuring that the Pax O2 has deployed ( and probably also pressing the manual O2 deployment switch in the flight deck just to be certain ) and then descending the aircraft as rapidly as possible down to a level which is a close to 10,000 ft above the ground as safe terrain clearance will allow. This descent might take 5 or more minutes depending on the alitutude the aircraft commenced the procedure ( and the need to reduce the descent rate if the aircrafts structural integrity is believed to be compromised ).

Once down to a safe level ( typically 10,000 ft ) the pilots & cabin crew will assess what has happened and then come up with an revised plan to get the aircraft to a suitable airport and to take care of the passengers needs ( including a very gentle descent down from 10,000 ft to the landing altitude - to help protect, as much as possible, any traumatised ears & sinuses ).

Pilots and cabin crew regularly rehearse the cabin decompression / emergency descent scenario ( indeed, this is one of the items I was required to complete, during my last simulator assessment only a couple of week ago ).

Hope this answers your question.

[norodnik]

all this screaming and wondering what's it all about...

Its quite simple really. When you get on an aircraft as a pax, you place your life in the hands of the person at the front.

From the moment you leave the ground, to the moment you kiss mother earth you are a pax. What is the point in screaming. If you are going to die then it will be a new experience. If you are lucky, you might survive to have another go some other day.

Mrs Mee should go back to her terrace house in Rotherham and knit another sweater

[ZAZOO]

I must say guys experiencing an emergency descent in a jumbo due to loss of cabin pressure is quite an experience when you are a passenger!!!

The whole experience is different from the flight deck believe me, all strapped in and tight up with a descent view on what is happening on the outside as you sort out the problems on the inside considering how well you do your job

Now in the pax cabin its just em eh oh man you dont want to know believe me, I was there once and I wished to heaven I was up front especially with the lady screaming Jesus Jesus Jesus next to me with her mask strapped on top of her head and saying I cant breath, I cant breath! :{ :{ and the next thing somebody's samsonite case bashes you on the head while you are trying to figure out what happened to the baby she was carrying a second ago ..................................... I could go on and on but I will save this never again experience with you all another day cause I could write a book on what pax did out of fright and ignorance !

[dicksynormous]

Well if flatulence is a sign of decompression then my bedroom this morning had just lost half its fuselage;)

[fastjet2k]

Liquids boiling over and a presence of mist are also signs... This morning I saw a kettle with lots of white vapour and water coming out the top... fearing a decompression in the kitchen, I ran........

[smudgethecat]

doubt it joyce, the original post stated it was a pressurisation snag that caused the the cabin altidude to climb to 14 k feet(10K??) and to claim the pilots most likely forgot to switch the system on is a bit fanciful ,you would know a long time before the jungle came down the cabin was failing to pressurise

[sinala1]

fearing a decompression in the kitchen, I ran........

:E :E :E

Although one has to ask what exactly the QRH drill for Kitchen Decompression would state?

:E

[fastjet2k]

Although one has to ask what exactly the QRH drill for Kitchen Decompression would state?

The QRH simply instructs one to grab one's microwave meal and run - nobody wants a depressurised lasagne, tis very bad for the intestines......

[A300Man-2005]

It's not just the tabloid journos who get it wrong.

Our respected colleagues over in the well respected justplanes.com website actually reported that the flight had originated in COVENTRY, and was bound FOR Barcelona, but had found it neccessary to DIVERT to ALICANTE, due to a decompression!!!

[bear11]

Thanks to Old King Coal for a very educational post - and bo**ocks to the rest of you, I'd bet even your sphincters tighten slightly as the alarm sounds, the masks drop, and the aircraft heads South ASAP on the rare few occasions a cabin does depressurise....

[groundbum]

On a lot of pprune posts you get pilots moaning about hysterical passengers and lack of perspective and twitchy nervous whiny people etc, whilst I expect the guys at the front are calmly running through their drills and sorting the situation with no muss or fuss.


So I wonder, what /are/ pilots like as passengers in a car????!!! I can betcha these cool calm supermen are actually twitching, shaking, leaning into corners, putting hands onto dashboard, moving feet around imaginary pedals and so forth! In fact, act a lot like the passengers in the back of a jet that they complain so much about!

So, any pilots want to own up to sitting serenely and relaxed when being driven in a car by somebody else, and I don't mean a fellow pilot mate?

S

[acbus1]

Although one has to ask what exactly the QRH drill for Kitchen Decompression would state?
I'm pretty sure it would include "Pan, pan, pan...................."




Second time lucky........you won't put me off moving the thread.

Cash, on the other hand......... :E :ok:

[fastjet2k]

if you weren't quick enough you'd be burgered... Oh god, I think that's just taken me out of the frier and into the fire...

*runs for cover......

[hec7or]

pilots spend a lot of time in taxis travelling from airport to hotel to airport and are therefore quite accustomed to the driving habits of others.

we also travel by air as passengers in air taxis, scheduled services and ad hoc charter while on duty and when we have time, we travel by air on holiday.

your point?

[Puritan]

hec7or, indeed !.... and somewhat by way of example, last week I (+rest of crew) did:

Start duty 5pm Thursday afternoon.
Position (BA flight) from Gatwick to Manchester.
Taxi from Manchester to Liverpool.
Fly as operating-crew from Liverpool to Faro, then Faro to Leeds-Bradford.
Taxi from Leeds-Bradford back to Gatwick.
Finish duty 10am Friday morning.

[jafo33]

Groundbum

The difference is that most pilots are also trained to drive a car and hold a driving licence. As such, could reasonably be expected to comment on someone elses driving based on their own experience.

Most passengers do not hold a pilots licence.