Cabin pressure loss on SOU-->DUB 06/12
 

Hi,

I flew to Dublin yesterday from Southampton on a DASH 8, soon after take-off we lost cabin pressure, the aircraft had not gained too much height, but we levelled out and continued one our way. When we got to Dublin I think the return flight was going ahead as normal as no delay was posted for the PAX about to board. Is all this a relatively regular occurrence ? and if the plane did fly back with would this be a problem?

Also when we initially boarded the flight we FO informed as the power unit (APU I guess) at the rear was not working and that is why there was no heating, I not sure if it hadn’t been started in time or it was faulty. But I guessed it was the former as I assume that kind of fault would ground an aircraft or are aircraft allowed to fly without a working APU?

That's interesting

I was speaking to a friend of mine yesterday who was flying from Dublin on the aircraft that you came in on. He was delayed for over an hour whilst a technical problem was corrected - turns out that the return journey took much longer than expected as the aircraft was flying at a lower altitude than normal and therefore not only did the journey take longer but the delay was down to a revised flight plan needing to be filed.

Ties in correctly with your experience.

On the Dash 8-300 the APU (Auxiliary power unit) can only be used on ground for heating and electricity. It is switched off before or shortly after the engines are started. An inoperative APU on this airplane has no affect on the saftety of the flight, some don't even have one as it weighs about 500-600 lbs (leaves the basic weight of the airplane lighter - thus less fuel consumption or more payload/passengers).

As far as I have heard it is pretty common on the Dash 8-400 to have inop APUs in winter by the way the airinlet is designed. It's pretty much on top of the fuselage so if it there is snow on the plane and it melts/gets deiced it often gobbles up a big amount of water - thus killing the APU.
Hope that helps ;) - no comments on the pressurization though as I don't know what really happened.