Kununurra accident
 

Just read a news feed that an aircraft has had an accident at Kununurra, 2 POB with serious injuries/burns reported. Can’t post the link however the info originated from the ABC.

Hope the report isn’t as bad as it sounds.

:Volunteer firefighters, St John Ambulance and police are at the scene of a light plane crash in Western Australia's far north.

Two men in their 20s were in the plane near the East Kimberley Regional Airport when it ran into trouble before 9am today.

The incident was reported by a member of the public who was fishing at nearby Bandicoot Point, after witnessing the plane crashing between the river and airport.

St John Ambulance said two men were trapped in the wreckage and have life threatening injuries, including burns.

The pair have been taken to Kununurra Hospital for treatment.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says it has been notified.

More to come"

No substantial information yet on who was involved but articles are pointing towards it being Baron VH-NPT.

Latest report is now saying 29-year-old and 50-year-old were on board. 29-year-old Pilot was retrieved from the crash and taken to Kununurra Hospital and awaiting RFDS to take him to Darwin but the 50-year-old became unresponsive whilst they were trying to get him out and was unable to be revived after. Claims are that it was a mail run from Broome to Kununurra. RIP and condolences to all involved.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-...bute/100996174

The man, in his 50s, was a nurse employed by the WA Country Health Service, and a passenger aboard the plane when it crashed during an attempted landing near East Kimberley Regional Airport on Saturday morning.

It's understood the plane was on fire and producing thick black smoke when volunteer firefighters, St John Ambulance and police rushed to the scene before 9am.

The 29-year-old pilot, employed by regional airline Aviair, suffered serious injuries in the crash.

Any more information forthcoming about this one?

A rumour going around (and I stress that it was told to me second-hand) that the sequence started with a cabin fire caused by a lithium battery in a laptop.

Without speculating with regards to the cause of the accident and I have no idea anyway, however I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it was identified that the root cause of the accident was a battery fire.

Having done a fair bit of investigation very recently into this specific hazard, I come to the conclusion that there is currently nothing available to contain a smoking battery or anything worse in a large aircraft, the fact is that absolutely nothing suitable (TSO certified) is available to contain these fires in flight.

I’ve also asked a good contact in CASA about this issue, and his response was that CASA currently have nothing approved and use the recommended advice that is currently available on their website. As far as the airlines go, their procedures are to throw the smoking device into an urn, toilet, pour water on it or worse case scenario piss on it to cool it down. Situation in a GA aircraft, you’ve got a serious emergency being a cabin fire.

This should be a game changer if it’s found that this caused the accident.

That accident sounds awful.

Re laptop battery fires, we carry fire gloves and a heat resistant bag on board specifically for putting laptops etc in to stop the fire.
Something like this

So, we’re not filling the sink with water and dropping the offending object in it anymore? This used to be prescribed wisdom.

———-

There’s probably other courses of action available to someone in an unpressurised aircraft. Not the least being to prise open a door/window.

The only problem with that of course is if it’s already burning hot and exploding, getting it out a small storm window in a Baron is just not going to happen, at least not without severely injuring or burning someone.

The company I work for uses those same bags above, which apparently will contain the item and prevent it from filling the cabin with smoke as well as the many other hazards present with a lithium battery fire.

Not entirely correct, so far as I'm aware there are no fire containment bags available that are TSO certified, I'm not even sure if there is a TSO certification to cover it exactly but there are a large range of these products approved for many different industries and ones that meet quite a few FAA requirements such as the Fire Containment Bags made by Brimstone, not a bad idea to have one on board if you have multiple devices or carry pax. There are however covers available that are TSO-C203 certified such as the ones from AMSafe and Newtex but these are obviously intended for much larger cargo situations.

None of this matters though if you don't get to in time unfortunately.

If the laptop was in the nose locker of the Baron it would be disastrous.

Guys and Gals.

This discussion has raised some red flags 🚩

Firsty, how is the risk of lithium battery thermal runaway or fire mitigated on an aircraft?

Gloves and Fire Containment bag. Also, the use of an atlas box or stainless steel bin receptacle will assist containment.

The very real danger is then the fumes.

Please read up on Lithium battery fires.

Water and Lithium do not mix. It does create a toxic gas. It is NOT effective as an extinguisher agent.

Edit: non flammable liquids may be used as a cooling agent for thermal runaway.

This should be covered in EP’s training.

There is products around like the Aircare Firesock Battery Risk Management System that will contain a phone, tablet, laptop. Larger aircraft generally have a stainless bin in the toilet and bottled water where a device can be placed and soaked in water.

We are probably better off starting a new thread on the potential problems of transporting batteries in aircraft, all good discussion on the subject however it’s only speculation of what may have caused the accident.

Let’s just hope that valuable lessons can be learnt from this accident, and the pilot makes a quick recovery and gets back flying, together with getting closure for the passenger’s family and friends.

We are probably better off starting a new thread on the potential problems of transporting batteries in aircraft,

I think a good idea.

Linked to Tech Log. In flight battery fires with particular interest in lithium powered devices ? - PPRuNe Forums

While we can only speculate on the cause at this stage, one thing that has always concerned me is that once fire starts in an aircraft cabin there is some horribly flammable material in typical furnishings. Many years ago the certifying authorities went big on fire blocking material for seats, but it did not extend to cabinetry or sidewall panels.

Any word on the condition of the pilot? Not a good place to be :(

He's been moved down to Brisbane, still in hospital from what I've heard.