Emergency at SEA?
 

That's what the headline said on CNN just now, with a developing situation at SeaTac.
Any more info?

Bit more news from CNN:
2 people in critical condition after de-icing fluid fumes were sucked into an Alaska Airlines jet at Seattle airport, CNN affiliate KIRO-TV reports.

De-icer fumes got inside of plane.

Link to story, I hope it works
De-icer gets into plane | Top Stories | KING5.com | News for Seattle, Washington

BBC report
 

The BBC, bless em
LATEST: De-icing fumes are reported to have been pumped into a plane at Seattle-Tacoma airport, US.

Points to the item
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Fumes 'leak into Seattle plane'

"Fumes 'leak into Seattle plane' "

Rather than "deicing fumes" ingested into aircraft, its another case of deicing mix being ingested into the APU. The heat of compression in the engine decomposes the fluid and, among other things, you end with carbon monoxide and some other noxious fumes.

Seen it happen more than once. Only answer is to shut down air conditioning packs during deicing to prevent fluid ingestion. Purging the pneumatic system (turn on some ATM,s, etc) before turning on packs is a good idea to.

standard procedure to shut down apu during de-icing.can't believe alaskan don't do the same..tragic.

Good God, you don't shut down the APU, you shut down the packs or bleed air valves. In other words stop the A/C air from coming into the pressure vessel.

Somebody forgot. :uhoh:


(Not that I ever did of course. :\)

You're assuming it was deiced at the gate.

If it is central deicing at SEA then it's the engine bleeds that need to be switched off.

De-icing was at the gate. The preliminary info is the De-ice crew started to deice before the cockpit crew was ready. also no one in critical condition, No Passengers taken to the hospital, 7 crew were as a precaution.

Mark

That does make sense.

Perhaps the word "Emergency" is just a slight exagerration here, not that I categorise inhaling de-icing fluid as an enjoyable pastime.

I feel that "De-Icing C@ck-Up at SEA" might be a bit less melodramatic. :rolleyes:

:cool: No ice for drinks; all drinks ice melted in 20 seconds.

Even if the packs, APU air had been switched off and the outflow valve(s) closed, the fluid's holdover time can easily be exceeded if precipitation continues or stops then returns. Another problem can be on flaps, which are retracted before the crew shows up.

If frost is only under the wings it can have a long holdover time, if the numbers on the de-icing charts verify this.

A possible cause is, as has happened to me:

Parked on gate at night awaiting de-icing.
Voice on i/c: "Let us know when you're ready to start."
Bas: "We're waiting to be de-iced."
VOI: "You've just been de-iced!"

No warning and with APU bleeds open. Fortunately no ingestion.
I learnt about flying from that.

De-ice fumes can also be had even if proper procedures followed if the person applying the fluid should allow fluid to be ingested at the APU inlet. Last year we had this happen a few times on our NG B737-800s. Company response: APU off followed by an unpressurized takeoff following the Boeing Supplimentary Procedures for Unpressurized Take-off of course!