Virgin Emergency at SNN
 

From RTE website

Plane lands at Shannon after cockpit fire
Sunday, 11 January 2009 13:13
A Virgin Atlantic plane has landed safely after being forced to make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport.

The plane was travelling to Chicago from Heathrow when a fire broke out in the cockpit.

Tom

VS039?
Virgin Atlantic Airways - Popup
What was it, A340 or B747?

After Swissair 111 I wouldn't wish to make light of it, but truly " a fire broke out in the cockpit" :eek: or ,smoke in the cockpit. Not nice, very alarming, but not a fire (yet) ? ?
Or maybe it was, in which case Thank God it didn't happen a couple of hours later.

RTÉ Ireland's National Television and Radio Broadcaster

Clare Fire Brigade has said says there was no fire in the plane's cockpit as had been reported.

The problem centred around a small amount of smoke coming from electrical wiring in the galley area of the plane.


tom

News says it was a A340!

It was G-VELD.

From Irish web-site....


A Virgin Atlantic plane from London to Chicago was forced to make an emergency landing today after a suspected fire broke out in the cockpit.

There were 156 passengers onboard the Airbus 8340 when it diverted to Shannon Airport at around 12.30pm.

"There was a suspected fire in the cockpit," said a Shannon Airport spokeswoman.

The plane was en route from Heathrow to O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Paul Charles, Director of Communications for Virgin Atlantic, denied there was a suspected fire in the cockpit.

"The pilot decided to make a precautionary landing at Shannon. We don't know what it is yet, but I have spoken to the captain and it definitely was not a fire," he said.

An 8340....that's obviously a journalist who hasn't a clue about planes and has misinterpreted what he/she heard! :rolleyes:

Well done guys. A safe outcome.

rte news showed the fire services in attendance with their hoses inside the forward cargo hold..... Could have been avionics bay rather than galley.

John

Still at Shannon
 

G-VELD is still at Shannon as of 1800z. The Shannon website showed a planned departure time of 0905z this morning. There have been further planned departures at 1215z and 1415z that have not gone ahead.

I bet the Virgin ops guys are loving this new flight watch system !, its more up to date than the old BA FICO aircraft movements. :ok:

The Irish Daily Star reported yesterday that the 'jumbo made and emergancy landing' at Shannon. Aww, bless! You have to love the tabloids!

Nothing wrong with FICO, just the people who use it!!!!!:p

No G-Veld is an Airbus A340-300, they rarely use the 600 to ORD

Preliminary report related to this incident has been released

Friday, 13 February 2009 12:33
Potentially catastrophic problems involving the electrical system of a number aircraft have been uncovered Irish air accident investigators.
A month ago 156 passengers and crew had a lucky escape after a fire broke out onboard their Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340 while it was en route from Heathrow to Chicago.
The plane was 140 nautical miles west of Galway.
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Today the AAIU published their preliminary findings into the fire.
Shortly after 12pm the cabin crew reported a small fire in the bottom of the waste bin storage compartment of the bar unit in the first class lounge.
Power was turned off in the area but the fire continued.
The crew used five fire extinguishers to try and put out the fire but it did not die out.
The captain declared an emergency and diverted to Shannon where the plane landed safely 30 minutes later.
The investigation by the AAIU found that the cable loom in the bottom of the waste bin compartment had been completely severed.
The loom is made up of 16 different electrical wires.
There should have been two runners installed at the bottom of the compartment to separate the bin from the wires.
There also should have been a protective metal cover over the electrical wires.
In the preliminary report says that the AAIU's initial inspection indicated that none of these covers were ever fitted.
Following the fire, Virgin Atlantic inspected a number of their Airbus A340-300 and A340-600 and discovered 'that a number of these aircraft also had problems relating to missing covers, rail screws and cable routing in this area.'
Significantly, damage to electrical wires was found on another Virgin Atlantic aircraft.
The preliminary report states that while the cause of the wiring damage, which caused the fire, has now been determined 'significant other issues are being examined.'
These include the difficulties faced by the crew in isolating the damaged circuits, the emergency checklist on the plane as well as the standards relating to the modifications to the aircraft carried out for Virgin Atlantic.

Story from RTÉ News:
RTÉ News: Report into Shannon emergency landing

AAIU preliminary report is here.

Wiring looms
 

It sounds very like polyimide or 'Kapton' rearing its ugly head again! Perhaps people have forgotten its less than damage tolerant arc tracking properties, but we'll see.

I thought Kapton was outlawed after the Bucanner crashes a few years back?

With a little chaffing the Kapton dust proved to be a small pile of explosive material when the wiring wore through to arcing with the airframe.

Can't believe that it could ever be approved again.

Then again, with the right brown envelope anything is possible.

Anyone know where the original conversion work was done?