Condor squawks 7700 mid Atlantic
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Condor squawks 7700 mid Atlantic
FR24 showingCondor flight DE 2116 Frankfurt to Mexico squawked 7700 mid-Atlantic and staggered back to Shannon. No furthe info available as at 21.20 GMT.
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Apparently smoke in the flightdeck.
Incident: Thomas Cook A332 over Atlantic on Feb 6th 2019, smoke in cockpit
Incident: Thomas Cook A332 over Atlantic on Feb 6th 2019, smoke in cockpit
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Root cause?
Any aviation chaps out there have any ideas on what could cause enough smoke to convince the pilot to go 7700 and yet not leave any trace of ignition or combustion after landing? One presumes that an experienced pilot can distinguish between particulate smoke and vapour condensation.
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Any aviation chaps out there have any ideas on what could cause enough smoke to convince the pilot to go 7700 and yet not leave any trace of ignition or combustion after landing? One presumes that an experienced pilot can distinguish between particulate smoke and vapour condensation.
Smoke does not equal fire, but how do you know?
Water vapor disappears 20 cm after it comes out of the vents and doesn’t smell.
Any aviation chaps out there have any ideas on what could cause enough smoke to convince the pilot to go 7700 and yet not leave any trace of ignition or combustion after landing? One presumes that an experienced pilot can distinguish between particulate smoke and vapour condensation.
As others have now pointed out actioning a “smoke ...checklist” doesn’t automatically mean the crew were dealing with clouds of visible combustion products that will leave traces all over the flight deck.
Almost 900 miles out in the Atlantic - Then takes 2 hours to get back to SNN - not nice at all when you are smelling burning...120 Mins of ETOPS would be quite enough for me.
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And like above what has ETOPS got to do with it, that only comes in when there is need to shut down an engine.
Ttfn
Last edited by ivor toolbox; 7th Feb 2019 at 10:44.
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He is probably refering to the fact that ETOPS nowadays would allow you to be far further than "just" two hours away from any suitable landing strip with a sick bird on your hands. Something to ponder on a long night over the Pacific...
Etops brain Fart
Do please excuse me it was 6am
Do please excuse me it was 6am
Last edited by wiggy; 7th Feb 2019 at 15:10.
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So for those of us who fly non-ETOPS across the Atlantic, what happens to us? 
(Clue: there's no requirement for me to fly the non-ETOPS route or be anywhere near an airfield)
(Clue: there's no requirement for me to fly the non-ETOPS route or be anywhere near an airfield)
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Are you suggesting that ETOPS is unsafe?
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Long time ago, was riding one of our 76-3er from Europa to Vancouver. After the beautiful sights of "Green"land and a little chat with Thule we started to get light fumes in the cockpit, visible and smelled it. Wasn't too bad but almost 2 hours from our alternate Yellowknife it required some attention
After some troubleshooting including killing the power to the galleys, our Purser had been informed and the 1st class gal came back with the info that there was a rattling noise under the galley floor at door 1R. In concert with ops we decided to switch the avionics cooling into override I believe. FA came back and reported the noise to be gone. We checked the galley and the floor, no smoke no heat and the fumes in the cockpit disappeared. We decided to continue to YYC but ready to divert to Yellowknife(they have a McDonalds there that provided dinner for another 76 of ours that diverted there because of an engine fire), or Edmonton further down the line if needed. We choose YYC not just because it was our destination but also the weather being VMC all the way down, unlike Yellowknife and Edmonton. We were aware that the avionics were cooled by diff pressure now and that at lower altitude it wouldn't work as well, resulting in possible loss of all our glass instruments etc. Briefed the arrival into YYC extensively and were prepared to fly the bird on the stby instr. After an uneventful descent/approach and enjoying the beautiful scenery the glass panels were starting to fade out and completely fail in the flare. They found the avionics fan bearing completely torn up, next day new fan and back home.(We bought the FA who brought our attention to the noise under the galley floor a nice little gift
After some troubleshooting including killing the power to the galleys, our Purser had been informed and the 1st class gal came back with the info that there was a rattling noise under the galley floor at door 1R. In concert with ops we decided to switch the avionics cooling into override I believe. FA came back and reported the noise to be gone. We checked the galley and the floor, no smoke no heat and the fumes in the cockpit disappeared. We decided to continue to YYC but ready to divert to Yellowknife(they have a McDonalds there that provided dinner for another 76 of ours that diverted there because of an engine fire), or Edmonton further down the line if needed. We choose YYC not just because it was our destination but also the weather being VMC all the way down, unlike Yellowknife and Edmonton. We were aware that the avionics were cooled by diff pressure now and that at lower altitude it wouldn't work as well, resulting in possible loss of all our glass instruments etc. Briefed the arrival into YYC extensively and were prepared to fly the bird on the stby instr. After an uneventful descent/approach and enjoying the beautiful scenery the glass panels were starting to fade out and completely fail in the flare. They found the avionics fan bearing completely torn up, next day new fan and back home.(We bought the FA who brought our attention to the noise under the galley floor a nice little gift