Diversion into Brimingham...Pressurisation problems?

[booke23]

First of all, sorry for being vague......

But does anyone know of an aircraft that diverted into EGBB on Thursday due to pressurisation problems.

I think the flight was bound for Edinburgh from somewhere in the south of the country. Not sure of the operator.

Anyone know the details?

[Fried_Chicken]

Flight was BEE762, EGHI-EGPH

No other details known

Fried Chicken

[nipper1]

I was onboard. After we landed at Birmingham, I spoke at some length to the captain.

The problem was caused by a failed seal on the rear internal cargo door. We were climbing through 14,000 feet at the time. Crew initiated a (not very) rapid descent. Oxygen masks not deployed. Diverted to Birmingham. Textbook stuff.

There then followed something of a comedy. FlyBe's reserve aircraft was ready and waiting just two stands away but we had to wait nearly half and hour for a bus to take us the necessary 100m.

Full marks to crew and company (though not Birmingham Airport) for geting us on our way in an efficient manner.

[FlapsOne]

Amazing that the answer was apparent so quickly.

Half an hour wat for a bus is, sadly, better than average at most airports these days for an unscheduled arrival.

[Wycombe]

"Oxygen masks not deployed"

If this was a Q400, that's because Pax O2 is not fitted!

[nipper1]

Aircraft was a -8. It's amazing how the tiniest detail gets flushed out on this board. Perhaps I should have said, crew did not go onto oxygen.

And in case anyone is interested, getting back from Edinburgh last night (Friday) was a complete shambles. Multi-hour delays across all operators and numerous cancellations/diversions.

Surely they have snow every year in Scotland? And even if they don't the Met Office had this weeks' minor snowfall forecast three days ahead. Surely its not too hard to get some extra staff on duty to sweep the runway?

[Oshkosh George]

You're right,it does snow a bit in Scotland,but the aircraft usually arrive from OTHER places,where they are NOT used to the snow!':D'

I'm not saying that WAS the cause,but England probably not as well prepared as Scottish airports,therefore a knock on effect.

[booke23]

Nipper, did the cabin pressure climb very quickly? ie causing ear discomfort.......I imagine the cabin altitude must have stayed below 10,000ft in any case.

I know someone who was on that flight, and know as soon as she gets back, she'll be asking me (as the only pilot she knows) what/why/how it happened etc......best to arm myself with the facts!!

[nipper1]

No noticable rapid rise in pressure. I certainly did not have any significant ear discomfort. Cabin crew reported feeling slightly faint.

The fact that the flight-crew did not go onto oxygen also supports your view that cabin pressure never went above 10,000 feet.

[Maude Charlee]

Funny how some people think it OK for the rest of the world to get dragged into work at short notice (to deal with forecast snow), but lord help an airline that expects it's crew to have any short-term flexibility. :rolleyes: Believe it or not, but ground handlers, airside ops crew and everybody else has a life too, and we're no fonder of getting shafted at the last minute with roster changes than the rest of you.

[CaptAirProx]

Well I would imagine as the a/c was only at 14,000 there really was no need to do a split arse descent risking a mid-air with other traffic. At 14,000 cabin/pax don't need o2 anyway and by the time the cabin has climb to ambient, the a/c was probably back at 10,000 with an ATC clearance to do so.

Sounds a text book event to me.

[booke23]

Absolute textbook.

I despise sensationalism in aviation, and would never want to appear to be par-taking in that past time!

Just wanted the facts for the inevitable grilling i'll get from my friend.

Also it seems the airline are to be highly commended for a very swift onward journey.

[nipper1]

Sometimes I really love pprune and especially the responses on gets - especially when people jump to all kinds of unwarranted conclusions.

For the benefit of Maude Charlee, I really need to point out that I am not aircrew, just a humble PPL. I work all hours of the day and night to keep my clients happy.

Never forget that airlines are a service industry….

[Wheelybin]

Off the original topic but with regard to some of the comments posted.
Edinburgh, desite being in Scotland, rarely suffers from significant falls of snow. This is due to a number of factors but the main one seems to be that a micro climate exists due to the warming effect of the River Forth. This keeps the ambient temperature a couple of degrees higher than the surrounding areas. It is not uncommon to sit in the tower at Edinburgh and see snow to the North over Dunfermline and snow to the South over the Pentlands, whilst if there is any precipitation at all at the airport then it is falling as rain.
Last year the airport closed once for runway sweeping. The year before, not at all. Significantly less than Other Airfields including those in The South East of England.
The forecast for last Friday showed what would normally be expected during the winter ie that the snow would dump on Aberdeen and on Newcastle but miss Edinburgh ( although we did receive a preliminary snow warning, stating that there might be slight showers of rain and snow with no accumulation expected.)
When the snow started to fall heavily, A very quick decision was made to close the runway. ( One of the factors that needs to be taken into account is the availability of Glasgow and Prestwick as diversionary airfields and they were expecting snow too.)
During the sweeping process, as quickly as black top was emerging it was being recovered and so the process took longer than was originally anticipated.
Eventually a decision was taken to re-open the airfield but wet snow continued to fall. After an hour, two seperate captains reported that the braking action was less than good and so in the interests of safety the airfield was shut again.
Having worked that day I know the pressures that Airfield operations were under and I have to say they did a very proffesional job and deserve credit for their actions. I understand that as a passenger it must have been very frustrating but I assure you that all involved were working their N**s off to ensure a safe operation.

[nipper1]

BFB. Thanks. That explains why the problem started to unfold at 14,000 feet.

In so far as I was able to ascertain it was not so much that the door was not closed, but that the inflatable seal around the rear internal cargo door had failed to inflate.

I'm sure that all the merchants of doom who read this board will be dissapointed to hear that here wasn't a single 'speeding fire engine' in sight. The Captain kept the passengers informed all the way through and sadly again for vultures, there were no 'terrified passengers'.

As I said in my original post, a simple event (hardly and emergency) dealt with very professionally by the crew.

[Irish Steve]

Great to see some clear information about this Dash 8 incident, wish I could get some about the one from Exeter last weekend, where it went back to Exeter after the gear doors developed a will of their own. No one seems to know what failed.

[Bombay Bad Boy]

Did the crew declare an emergency? It would be nice to have the pilots view on the whole incident.

The Brum ATC website have a section to help pilots and controllers appreciate workload/nature of emergencies:

http://www.egbb.co.uk/case.htm

A different emergency features every two months.
BBB

[dv8]

past 14,000 ft the master warning goes off

AFAIK The CABIN PRESS light goes on at 9,800ft (cabin alt)

[Trislander]

The Q400 doesn't have a rear internal cargo hold door like the Q300. Are you sure??

It has an internal 'wardrobe' type forward hold which is accessible from the front of the cabin next to the toilet but this door is not sealed so must be the external door which is used to access this hold from the outside.

T