AA and DELTA declare fire Mayday at BOS

[jimworcs]

Is it conceivable that these events are related?

1. Incident: American B738 at Boston on May 27th 2010, fire alert

An American Airlines Boeing 737-800, flight AA-1875 from Boston,MA to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA) with 166 people on board, was climbing from 8000 to 14000 feet out of Boston, when the crew (quite agitated) declared emergency due to a possible fire on board and requested to return to one of Boston's runways 22. The airplane levelled off at 10000 feet, the crew donned their oxygen masks, a few minutes later the crew requested runway 04R. About 12 minutes after the crew declared emergency the airplane landed safely on runway 04R and stopped on the runway. Emergency services found no trace of fire, smoke or heat. The runway was closed.

2. Incident: Delta Airlines MD88 at Boston on May 27th 2010, burning odour

A Delta Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-88, flight DL-1373 from Boston,MA to New York La Guardia,NY (USA) with 83 people on board, was departing Boston maintaining 14000 feet, when the crew reported a burning odour in the back of the aircraft, declared emergency and requested to return to Boston. The airplane returned to land on runway 04R 12 minutes after emergency was declared, the airplane turned off the runway onto runway 33R where emergency services checked the airplane.

Emergency services found no trace of fire, smoke or heat.

[GarageYears]

AA-1875 actual departure time 6:09AM, returned landing 6.31AM
DL-1373 actual departure time 6.32AM, returned landing 7.23AM

Info from Track Flight Status, Airport Delays and other Flight and Airport Information (http://www.flightstats.com)

Both reported problem at similar altitude. Not sure what to conclude from the timing above - the AA flight lasted 22 minutes, the DL 51 minutes?

- GY :confused:

[protectthehornet]

having lived and flown out of boston, I can tell you it stinks sometimes!

I'm glad it all worked out ok...good thinking to land on 4 instead of 22 by american...saved some time and what's a downwind landing among friends...???

but seriously...perhaps some sort of ''sucking of a bird" or some sort pickup of an odor producing liquid on the runway?

I flew into an odd california airport in a 146 along time ago...over the FAF one could smell the oil refinery...as good as a marker beacon!!!

[protectthehornet]

but seriously...my computer is old and flight tracking doesn't work on it

could someone post the location in terms of " 25 nm west of logan airport" or something like it.

there might be something on the ground that makes a smell worthy of an oxygen mask.

[411A]

there might be something on the ground that makes a smell worthy of an oxygen mask.
The aftermath of the intake of Boston beans.

[jimjim1]

The total flight time of the flights is exactly 6 x 666 seconds.

Doomed from the start.

[OddballM4]

I flew into an odd california airport in a 146 along time ago...over the FAF one could smell the oil refinery...as good as a marker beacon!!!


Distinctly remember a flight into Baton Rouge some years back... somewhere near final approach a strong petroleum odor suffused the cabin, and scores of hands reached up in unison to close air vents. A voice called out from somewhere in the cabin "Welcome to Louisiana!" :}

[gulfairs]

I flew into Hong kong many years ago, Spike Milligan was on the flight deck.
A Just after the nose wheel touched the recirc fans started, and he stated:
"Whats that smell?"
The Flt Eng stated:
"Poo."
Milligan then said:
"I know its poo, but what have they done to it?"

[TRW Plus]

Possible explanation -- forest fire smoke. Winds at flight levels around 10k were NNW 40-60, previous night heavy thunderstorms from Quebec moved south through Vermont and New Hampshire into MA.

I'm aware of some forest fires burning in northeast Ontario and central Quebec that could have been feeding into this region at the time mentioned. Possibly there were new fires started in northern New England by the lightning (severe storms were moving south across Vermont from about 01 to 03 UTC May 27).

Wind direction closer to surface was ENE from Atlantic, no smoke likely in those levels so people on ground unaware of problem.

[MATELO]

ENE winds.

Remenants from the Volcanic Ash Cloud being ingested??

[GarageYears]

ENE winds.

Remenants from the Volcanic Ash Cloud being ingested??

IMMEDIATELY ground EVERYTHING! :ugh:

- GY :uhoh:

[Airbubba]

Here's the track of the AA 1875 emergency air turnback:

FlightAware > American Airlines #1875 > 27-May-2010 > KBOS-KBOS (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL1875/history/20100527/1010Z/KBOS/KBOS)

And here's the approach control recording:

http://archive-server.liveatc.net/kbos/KBOS-App-North-May-27-2010-1000Z.mp3

AA 1875 initially calls approach at about 12:13 into the recording. At 15:00 they are given a frequency change but do not acknowledge and at 15:27 they declare an emergency for a possible fire onboard. After a couple of vectors to return, they are switched to an uncharted tower freq of 121.75 at 23:30 into the recording.

Almost sounds like one guy had the mask on and the other one didn't or lifted it for clearer radio transmissions.

Great job by a group of pro's!:ok:

Glad it turned out to be a false alarm.

[jmmilner]

Seems likely that these were related to forest fires - From the BBC news:

Firefighters in Canada are battling more than 50 forest fires that have sparked smog alerts across Quebec and parts of the north-eastern US.
At least eight of the blazes north of Montreal were out of control, Quebec's forest fire protection unit said.
Smoke moved over Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the US, with the city of Boston covered in a haze on Monday.
Officials in both countries have warned people with breathing problems to remain indoors until the smoke clears.
The fires - sparked by lightning strikes - have raged for a week, and more than 1,300 firefighters were battling the blazes on Monday evening.
More than 1,260 sq km of Quebec forest have been scorched, according to the provincial forest fire protection authority.
One of the hardest hit areas has been Wemotaci, a native reserve in Central Quebec that is home to Atikamekw indigenous group.
Unseasonably warm and dry weather conditions have made Quebec's spring fire season particularly active in 2010, reports say.

[p51guy]

An ATIS report of smoke at altitudes near the airport might have helped the pilots figure out what was happening if that was the source. After Swissair 111 off Halifax pilots don't delay responding to unknown smoke. They probably knew nothing about the fires in the area so assumed it was an aircraft problem. They did the right thing.

[xetroV]

A few months after the Swissair crash, I experienced a tense couple of seconds when noticing a sudden strong burning odour on the flightdeck of our MD-11. That happened in IMC at an altitude of about 16000 feet, during descent into YVR.

We were about to declare an emergency when we cleared the clouds, seeing a huge forest fire some miles to our right with lots of firefighting efforts (waterbombers, etc.) going on.

Sure would have been nice if someone had warned us in advance! :)

[Sir Richard]

Try This:

Canadian Fires Send Smoke Over New England : Image of the Day (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=44138&src=eoa-iotd)

[SaturnV]

The odor of smoke was so strong north of Boston at the end of May that people were calling fire departments insisting their home was on fire.

Canada fires spark North Shore calls Local News SalemNews.com, Salem, MA (http://www.salemnews.com/local/x2023227608/Canada-fires-spark-North-Shore-calls)