TOM4251 (Sept 4) Birmingham - Dominican Republic

[Colin Tozer]

Colleague at work has returned from an extended break to Dominican Republic.

Had two flight returns to Manchester trying to get there. Has there been a post as to the trouble encountered?

As she reported:

Departed BHX, 1 hour into flight Captain announced return to Manchester, after a 90 minute fuel dump over Irish Sea, landing was uneventful. "Technical problem with electrical systems" cited.

Eventually had an overnight stay in Manchester, were reboarded to same a/c next day, departed and again c1 hour into flight same fault, Fuel dump over Irish sea, return to Manchester with all the equpment on the ground to meet them for an "overweight landing".

Sounded like some form of electrical issue as "Galleys couldn't be fired up" was a symptom given. Also a report of interior cabin lighting problems (no overhead roof lights) and suggested absence of starboard wing running lights (?)

Anyone know the details?

[BAe 146-100]

I don't know the full details of the reason for the divert but I can confirm that they dumped fuel over the Irish Sea near the LYNAS waypoint on Sept 4th. It couldn't have been anything too serious with the aeroplane as the return did not warrant a full emergency, must have just been electrical as you said.

146

[Smudge's Lot]

As far as I aware, the plane had a generator fault which means that you do lose what Boeing term to be non-essential electrics, ie galleys and some cabin lighting. This makes that problem a quite bad one for long haul obviously. The aircraft landed at Man (longer runway and more engineering facilities) where a fix was attempted. All ok on the ground but once airbourne, the problem reoccured, meaning a return to Man.
A different aircraft was taken to Man for the flight and the pax departed 36 hours late!
Oh Dear!!

[The Invisible Man]

Generator was changed but was not actual cause of problem.

After many hours fault finding, fault traced to wiring mod carried out on entertainment system.