OLT Express A320 emergency landing in Sofia
 

Today an OLT Express A320 (SP-IAE, flight number YAP7107) had an emergency landing in Sofia.

OLT CEO informed, that the aircraft suffered decompression and performed emergency descent. During the approach one of the oxygen generators caused on-board fire.

Aircraft landed in Sofia 13 minutes after the the incident began, passengers were evacuated on the runway using slides.

avherald: Incident: OLT Express A320 near Sofia on May 17th 2012, fire in cabin
ATC recording: WRZUTA - OLT Express - awaryjne l

Not the best piece of maintenance (if the rumor about the generator falling off is true).

Nicely sanatized
 

Why evacuate on the runway if the fire was located and extiguished?

Fire = Get off ASAP.

Correct. Fire is THE single most dangerous occurence onboard an airplane, be it in flight or on the ground. Also, remember that it all started with a decompression; ie PAX masks deployed and started producing 02. Then one of the chemical 02 generators apparently fell out of its stowage and the floor carpet caught fire... which in turn was fed by the 02 produced by the chemical generators (the very reason why in a cabin fire situation not subsequent to a decompression, 02 masks would NOT be deployed). Once started, these generators will produce 02 (and heat) and cannot be stopped until they run out of chemical components. So the fire could possibly have got out of hand, or restarted. Evacuating asap seems like a sensible decision to me.

From the ATC recording, it sounds like the flight crew were initially wearing full-face 02 masks (sounds of breathing) - until passing FL100. Again, another correctly applied Memory Item (EMG DESC). But they sound relaxed enough to start their call with "good morning" on frequency transfer...

Cheers :cool: