747 "emergency" at Cardiff

[TURIN]

BBC radio are reporting a 747 emergency at Cardiff. Allegedly smoke in the cabin.

Dunno what airline.

Probably nothing, but as I was ere.........

[HOODED]

Aparently a 777 with smoke in the cockpit. Down safe all ok!

[EGCC]

Flight BA099 LHR - YYZ, a 777, landed at CWL at 17:20

[DingerX]

Heh. That also happened to a BA 777 into BOS back on the 8th of this month. Seems like a fairly routine occurrence. Every now and then the press catches wind of it.

[Woff1965]

Now they are saying there was a "burning" smell in the cockpit.

The aircraft was a BA flight from Heathrow to Toronto. It has now been towed to the BA maintence hangar.

[Avman]

I'll get flak but I don't care. Woff, just for info, with respect, it's a hangar wot u put planes in and a hangar wot u 'ang yuz coat on.

[maxy101]

No doubt...accolades for the CC and a kick up the arse for the pilots then.....

[Charlie Zulu]

That is quite handy being able to get into Cardiff as that is where their 777's and 747's are maintained.

I wonder what was going on when I was heading away from the airport and Barry Fire Engines were rushing towards the airport (external fire units attend full scale emergencies at Cardiff Airport).

Should have stayed at the flying club a little longer this afternoon!

Best wishes,

Charlie Zulu.

[loewy]

Can't help thinking about what if this had developed over the Atlantic...

[akerosid]

I was surprised at the number of pax on the flight. I thought that YYZ was one of those routes where BA offers the flatbed seats in J class. With a four class layout (First, Club, Premium and Economy), I understood that BA's 777s seated around 230-240, well under the 274 suggested by the Beeb.

Just curious; glad, of course, that everything turned out for the best.

[Rwy in Sight]

Didn't a similar incident happend around the same time last year on an AF 777 from Paris to I think the West Coast? I recall by speaking with a an AF cabin crew member they landed in Churchill Canada and they have to evacute using the slides.

Anyway happy things turned to be ok.

Rwy in Sight

[speedbird_heavy]

Can't help thinking about what if this had developed over the Atlantic...

Thats when ETOPS would come in to play. Poberbly had Cardiff, Reykjavik and Goose Bay as ETOPS alternatives. So they would have been within 180 mins of one of these three airports.

Allthough I have to say, the way the BBC reported it you would have thought the aircraft was trailing smoke for miles and made a very dramatic landing. From what I was told, most of the staff thought it was a normal ferry flight from LHR on its way to BAMC and didnt realise anything was wrong untill they saw the fire service following behind.

[Arkroyal]

No, Avman

You puts planes in a woodworking shop, and aeroplanes in hangars

180 minutes is a very long time to be on fire, innit?

[speedbird_heavy]

The aircraft wasn't on fire. There was a smell of burning in the cabin. If it was on fire, the pax would have been evacuated via the door slides and would not have been left on board for over an hour whilst BA decided what to do.

[BahrainLad]

From the TV piccies it looked like a G-YMM* variant of the 777.

(Less windows between 1R and 2R than the others....I'll get my coat.)

And yes 274 pax does seem high......perhaps 'souls on board' rather than pax?

[5milesbaby]

Allthough I have to say, the way the BBC reported it you would have thought the aircraft was trailing smoke for miles and made a very dramatic landing. From what I was told, most of the staff thought it was a normal ferry flight from LHR on its way to BAMC and didnt realise anything was wrong untill they saw the fire service following behind.

I expect it was slightly dramatic from the point of view of those onboard, and the a/c must have been heavy. Those staff that thought it was a ferry flight are obviously those that needed to know nothing of the incident. ATC would have initiated the emergency which involves contacting the Airport Authority so those that really needed to know did.

[blackbox]

A/c G-YMMC was ferried back to LHR 26Mar/eve...

The config on this a/c is J36W24M214 = 274..

[akerosid]

Ah, very interesting; I didn't know they had 777s without F class. Do you know how many 777s are in this layout?

Thanks for that info anyway, Blackbox!

[Porky Speedpig]

There are 6 777ERs is the JWM config

[moo]

just for your information, the air conditioning pack was to blame. I work at BAMC and although not on shift, I have spoken to the guys who handled it that night and the pax were bussed to the terminal where they were taken to a hotel. Fault finding was carried out and a turbine/compressor blade within the pack was found to have sheared resulting in severe friction/heat causing the cabin smoke. We had a 777 in for maintenance anyway and a pack was 'robbed' from it and fitted/tested ok. The pax were brought back to Cardiff and flown back to LHR where a crew swap/refuelling took place and the aircraft left for Toronto the same evening. All in a night's work for the guys involved, big well done to them too!