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BA288 Emergency at Phoenix

news from another site that BA288 has deployed its slides after a possible fire on board....

anyone know more?

My wife on board - just had a call. Yes, slides deployed (that's how she exited).

Now in terminal and told to "rebook", whatever that means....

No other news on any injuries or reasons, but she is certainly a bit shaken up.

Local TV Station

According to BBC
BBC NEWS | Americas | BA evacuates fume-filled US jet
and Sky TV earlier plane hadn't taken off so no emergency landing,still unpleasant for those pax concerned I imagine.

Just for a little accuracy (for the benefit of Sky News/AP), the flight was about to depart Phoenix NOT land. "Hundreds" would have been the 300 or so pax on board, I guess....

It had left the gate but had not reached the holding point (and it's a very short taxi). Very acrid smoke was coming from the rear of the passenger cabin (galley, maybe??) and some young children were carried forward because of this smoke. I understand the smoke had something of a peroxide-type smell.

It seemed a little while before the decision was taken to deploy the slides (though perhaps it was not) and some main deck passengers were directed to the upper deck slides because it was taking a while to clear the main deck forward door areas (the Y class cabin at least appeared completely full or almost so).

The latest local news says no actual fire was detected by fire crews. Usual grazes etc, from the slides, but nothing serious as far as I know.

Yes, 300 or so, passengers.
It would appear that an air conditioning pack overheated and/or an APU problem, sent rather dense smoke throughout the cabin...the outside temperature was 110F, at the time.
'Tis rather warm at this time of year in PHX.:}
The airplane will be there for awhile...all the door slides were deployed, it appeared.

Doesn't look like the plane had moved more than a few feet if at all from the loading tunnel.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...a_plane226.jpg

Wow they deployed the upper deck chute. That's got to be scary for a passenger to look down. I wonder if they actually used them.

I'm not sure if I'm really scared of heights but I don't like loosing my natural horizon. So being on top of a 747 fuselage using the crew escape ropes (sic) would not be my cup of tea either.

i understand that a fire on a fully fueled aircraft is a very scary thing but was it really necessary given the jetbridge was still in place?

is there an SOP in such circumstances?

Quote:

...but was it really necessary given the jetbridge was still in place

The airbridge was not in place.

bigjames - I assume you mean was the 'evacuation' really necessary? Ask yourself what is the quickest way to get 300 odd people off a (possibly) burning aircraft? Single airbridge door or multiple slides? That is assuming the airbridge is still connected rather than just 'in place' as you put it.

Quote:

i understand that a fire on a fully fueled aircraft is a very scary thing but was it really necessary given the jetbridge was still in place?

This is what was going through the captain's mind (see the bit 52 seconds in):

Fire service took their time there!! (CAL120)

Quote:

The picture in post 7 appears to be of an different incident... the apparently collapsed MLG and the #4 engine sat on the ground being the give away.

That pic in post #7 was from BBC, This one from sky news, the same other than dusk/dark:

http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content...2/15335769.jpg

From the bbc website looks like some passenger panic,- calling for the doors to be opened, Kudos to the cabin crew in keeping them under control. Have seen a similar scenario whereby a tail pipe fire,which was fairly dramatic but essentially quite a harmless momentary event, caused someone in the cabin to shout "Fire" and then mass panic broke out, some pax actually opened the doors and deployed the slides while the aircraft was still pushing back- not good!

Ordered an evacuation last year on my 737 due to smoke everywhere in the aircraft during taxi in. I had the airbridge connected as it was so close. No one got injured, all 110 pa and crew got out in a mere 2 minutes. If I had to do it again, i'd use the slides!
Full mayday, fire department arrived within minutes, no evidence of fire was found after inspection. Later was revealed an electric failure had caused the air/gnd system to fail. No cooling of the airconditioningpacks on the ground. They heat up pretty quick apparently, burning old oil and dust. This burning oil gives an acrid smell, which sets you on the wrong track.
Curious what caused this.
I'm happy everyone got out!

Cheers, T.:ok:

Some Close-up Pictures

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b5...ying/baem3.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b5...ying/baem5.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b5...ying/baem6.jpg

Just out of curiosity, what does it take to get this plane airworthy again? Do the slides get replaced completely or somehow repacked?

As I said last night, my wife was on board, so I can correct some inaccuracies here. I had not previously realised just how easily some posters will jump to inaccurate conclusions until I was in this position to know exactly what actually happened!

The aircraft is G-CIVB and, as far as I can see, all of the pictures above are of the actual aircraft.

The initial smell was noticeable before push-back commenced

Push-back started, but after a few yards it stopped and the aircraft was moved forward again, almost to the jetway, but it was not immediately reconnected (as far as I know)

Worryingly, there was ZERO PA at any time (or it was so quiet as to be inaudible) - the pax were just talking to each other. I thought there were two or three different "Evac" recordings which the crew just press a button to select and for it to play automatically??

Some passengers took it upon themselves to walk forward with young children because of the smell and smoke (even thought the aircraft was moving and no crew told them to sit down)

My wife was in row 36 and there was most certainly NO panic anywhere around her

Pax simply sat and waited for instructions, whilst obviously becoming more and more aware and concerned about the acrid smell - this lasted about 10 minutes

If you know the config, you will know my wife was two rows in front of door 3R (I think door 3 anyway, but it may have been 2R).

The only reason she knew to evac, was because two crew were at this door, they held back the pax until the slides were fully deployed, then started the evac. It took three minutes to clear the aircraft (I don't know how the few WCHR pax were taken off).

There was still NO PA at all, though of course the crew were shouting a bit to keep the pax moving

A significant number of pax grabbed their wheelie bags, etc from the overhead bins and came down the slides with them....!!

The pax were assembled in the open on the ramp, though not a significant distance from the aircraft (about 25 - 30 yards back) and stayed there for about FIFTEEN TO TWENTY MINUTES - long enough for ground staff to locate, carry out and distribute bottles of water for everyone.....

They were standing on the ramp as the fire trucks began to arrive

Eventually, they were ushered back into the terminal (an endless walk), where the inevitable other side of these events began - the endless standing around waiting to hear about bags, carry-on bags, re-booking, avoiding TV cameras in your face, etc.

Very late last night (AZ time) the flight was shown as rescheduled to 16.00 today, but now it is shown as cancelled.

So now we're off to the airport to join a no doubt lengthy queue, locate the checked-in bags (or file a PIR...) and try to get her re-booked - it could be a long and frustrating day and she is not really looking forward to repeating the push-back experience anyway!!

I flew 747 with BA for 18 years. It evidently happened during start check on pushback. The pushback was halted, probably after a phone call from the cabin. Unfortunately, the flight deck is totally remote from what is going on in the cabin, so it would have taken time to assess exactly what was going on, call out assistance, stop the push and ask the ground staff what they can see outside, and arrange for a tow back to the gate if not immediately serious. The lack of immediate PA does not mean they were sitting doing nothing! Had it developed into a more serious situation, the cabin crew would have immediately stopped the push with a call to the flight deck, and they are authorised to commence an emergency evacuation independently in a catastrophicly serious situation only, such as cabin fire and flames.

The crew are loathe to commence an emergency evacuation without a serious requirement- they always cause injury to individuals and broken bones are frequent. From what I can assess from reports, it was carried out correctly to a 'T'. I think maybe the situation overtook a planned disembarkation at the jetty, which would have been slow, despite the developing emergency. It is vital in a non-catastrophic situation that the handling of the problem is controlled and the response is measured.

The slides all need replacing. It is likely 2 will be replaced (for the crew) and the aeroplane will not fly back to base with passengers.

Positionandhold - first and foremost - happy to hear that your wife is OK. I'm sure the rebook, recheck, restart is frustrating.

I have two questions for you from your "firsthand" knowledge:

1. What was the "smoke state" in the cabin?
- was visibility impaired: 5m / 1m?
- where did it get to in terms of breathe-ability: choking?

2. Do you ( &/ your wife) think the correct decision was taken this time?
- and was this done too late / too soon?

And a comment:

Lack of PA announcements seems to be a recurring theme at PPRUNE. I am not sure that there is much science on this and clearly it is not a good thing to issue "don't panic" noise. Surely something on lines of "The captain is aware of a potential problem and is currently investigating - please be prepared to follow instructions from cabin crew..." would be better. If only to avoid "news vacuum induced panic".

-r101