Two pilots in Canberra Hospital after emergency landing

[Preemo]

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/pilots-taken-to-hospital-after-emergency-landing-at-canberra-airport-20180816-p4zxqp.htmlPilots taken to hospital after emergency landing at Canberra Airport
Two pilots have been taken to hospital after making an emergency landing at Canberra Airport.

Emergency services were called to the airport at 11.46pm on Wednesday after a sudden loss of pressure in the aircraft.

Firefighters and paramedics were on standby at the airport when the plane is understood to have landed safely just after midnight.

The pilot and co-pilot were taken to Canberra Hospital for monitoring.

The aircraft is understood to be a Qantas Boeing 737-700 cargo plane.

It was flying from Brisbane to Melbourne before being forced to land in Canberra.

Qantas has been contacted for comment.

[hoss]

Hope they have a speedy recovery, I’ll be interested in hearing what happened.

[stormfury]

I’ll be interested in hearing what happened.
Both had the fish???

[Horatio Leafblower]

Both had the fish???

I think the loss of pressure referred to was in the airframe, not in the pilots.

[stormfury]

I think the loss of pressure referred to was in the airframe, not in the pilots.Good point, I do apologize, was just trying to make light (clearly poorly) before the onslaught of ‘reasons why’ are provided by those who read the same media article. It wasn’t lost on me that the likelihood of getting fish on the freighter is pretty low.

[Ken Borough]

The aircraft is understood to be a Qantas Boeing 737-700 cargo plane

A B737-700?

[Icarus2001]

The words EMERGENCY LANDING certainly get thrown around a great deal don't they.

"forced to land in Canberra" do they mean the PIC decided to divert there?

[Preemo]

I wonder if there is a car parked behind their plane!

[HOBAY 3]

Hope the Captain has the credit card ready for pushback or CBR management will block them in with a car :D

[thunderbird five]

How was the plane "forced" to land? It did not want to land by itself? And if it was indeed forced, isn't that a hijacking????

[markfelt]

Update on the ATSB website

The ATSB is investigating an depressurisation and crew incapacitation involving a B737, VH-XMO, near Narrandera NSW, 15 August 2018.

During cruise, the crew of the cargo flight received a wing body overheat warning resulting in a reduction of cabin pressure. The crew donned oxygen and descended to 20,000 ft. The First Officer was subsequently incapacitated and the Captain descended to 8,000 ft and diverted the aircraft to Canberra.

As part of the investigation, the ATSB will collect and examine information on the aircraft’s flight data recorders and interview maintenance and flight crew.

A final report will be released at the end of the investigation.

Should a critical safety issue be identified during the course of the investigation, the ATSB will immediately notify those affected and seek safety action to address the issue.

[WingNut60]

The words EMERGENCY LANDING certainly get thrown around a great deal don't they.

"forced to land in Canberra" do they mean the PIC decided to divert there?



Never let it be said that I stood up for the newspapers and their drivel but I think that you may be trivialising this a bit.
It may not have been an EMERGENCY LANDING however it was certainly not in the same league as a simple divert because of crappy weather at destination.

The pilot was faced with:

Wing body overheat - tech problem requiring unplanned descent
And why would that be. One pack already out of service.
Flying without functioning PM
Uncertainty about condition of PM - no CC to assist
Assurance that "I'm OK now" is no assurance at all.
2nd unplanned descent
Uncertainty about condition of masks
Possibly not feeling too good himself - the newspapers reported that both crew were taken to the hospital for observation raising this possibility.

I also don't like to use hate using the Swiss cheese analogy, but this one looks like it could have been heading that way.

[framer]

The crew donned oxygen and descended to 20,000 ft. The First Officer was subsequently incapacitated and the Captain descended to 8,000 ft and diverted the aircraft to Canberra.

I don’t know how accurate the above is if we can believe the data from FR24.
According to FR24 at 1325 the aircraft was at FL260 ( which it was cruising at) and at 1326 at FL210, 1327 FL180, 1328 FL126 and at 1329 10,000ft.
That seems like an emergency descent without pause from cruise altitude, by 1331 they were level at 8000ft.

[Berealgetreal]

That sounds like a high workload event!

[Duck Pilot]

Excellent job done by the crew, high workload and possibly forced single pilot operation as well at night into Canberra, what was the wx like at the time?

[MagnumPI]

LiveATC Archives

YSCB APP: http://archive-server.liveatc.net/yscb/YSCB1-App-Dep-Center-Aug-15-2018-1330Z.mp3 (starts 19:00 in recording)
YSCB TWR: http://archive-server.liveatc.net/yscb/YSCB1-Gnd-Twr-Aug-15-2018-1400Z.mp3 (starts 1:00 in recording)