British Airways 777 diverts to Goose Bay - fumes in flight deck - FO incapacitated
 

The Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS) under Cadors Number: 2013A0105 reports that on 3 February 2013 as follows:

An emergency (Pan Pan) was declared by BAW67V, Boeing 777-200, enroute from London (EGLL) to Philadelphia (KPHL), due to an incapacitated first officer. The pilot also reported fumes in the flight deck that was limited to the flight deck, requested and was cleared to Goose Bay (CYYR). No landing assistance was required; however medical assistance was requested for the first officer. The aircraft landed without incident at 18:18Z.

More info go to:

Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS) - Query

Interestingly, the report seems to have disappeared.

@Ambient Sheep:

It's still there - just put in the CADORS-Number and hit the search button...

Seems is is still at Goose Bay according to flightradar24 or at least hav not made it to other destination covered by flightradar24 yet. G-ZZZC was flying as BA188 (EWR-LHR) the night before. When tracking on flightradar24 it change from BAW67V to BAW67.

Weather is shocking in Goose , not helping departure .

I did. It came back with no results, despite me double-checking the number. I then also searched for all reports since the 2nd February, and the reports stopped at 2013A0104. Hence me assuming that 2013A0105 had been pulled for some reason.

It works for me now though, so I'm glad to see that it's back. Apologies for the digression.

In a jocular mode, perhaps the curry shouldn't have been quite so hot for the pre-flight meal? :}

On a more serious note, the brief summary does not indicate whether or not the Captain needed to don oxygen mask to complete flight.

Precautionary landing, hope all is well with the crew. :ok:

Never give up!
 

Here is a copy of the incident if unable to access it:

http://www.aerotoxic.org/download/do...ary%202013.pdf

Never give up!

Eros Masks.
 

Pity the poor skipper if the 777 is fitted with those awful "Eros" O2 masks.

Doubtless a lot of heavy breathing and if using one, (s)he would deafen and distract themselves with the racket every time a breath is taken.

There must be some fume events in real aircraft where comms, both internal and with external agencies, have been degraded and corrupted, yet the aircraft manufacturers and the certifying authorities insist on their fitment.

Bad enough in the simulator, but trying to switch the damn things off whilst inhaling in the real event, in an attempt to make comms clearer, must make one curse their designers and manufacturers.

The recent sad losses of freighters from inflight fires may have been adversely affected by these masks-does anyone know if the subsequent accident reports mentioned the disgraceful audio quality from inhalation noise?

But then it would be too expensive to change them for a properly designed off-the-peg O2 mask/audio combo, such as are fitted to most military aircraft.

Back yet again to "The Tombstone Imperative"! :ugh:

Yes it is a pain but you can turn off the hot mic when you don't need to speak!!:ok:

Why??
 

Granted nitpicker, I can flick the mic off when I want to inhale and reselect it active when I wish to speak. Many aircraft, same type, same company, different airframe, have latching mic switches and some which should have them don't. So I'll just try to remember which one it is I'm driving today as the instrument panel and everything else disappear in the choking smoke!

Great!! Is that the best DESIGN the industry can manage to enable those stressed and possibly already intoxicated to try to manage and operate the flight to a successful conclusion?

And if it's so good, why haven't the military, who use masks virtually 100% of the time in their fast pointy things, gone over to the same design??

No. I don't think so. You are accepting another unnecessary psycho-motor response to be deliberately added to the workload at exactly the time when the pilots' medical fitness may already be severely compromised and degraded!

Do our ATC colleagues have any feedback on comms quality during incidents which they have handled?

Maybe pause and think before transmitting a comment like that!? :mad:

Indeed, BM, I suspect nitp has not actually tried to co-ordinate this switching dance in an emergency in a smoke-filled cockpit. I have, fortunately, only experienced it in the sim but found myself NOT talking when I wanted to but breathing very hard when I didn't need to broadcast that, and the extra work-load in having to constantly remember and make this selection was excessive and distracting.

Granted I haven't done it in a smoke filled cockpit for real but I have done it many times in the Simulator. Using the Oxy whilst trying to read checklists, read the over head panel etc using glasses and then the distraction of the breathing through the speaker is a pain in the ass and I acknowledge the problem.

It certainly does increase the workload trying to remember to turn off the hot mic.....

Why can't you just turn off the hot mic and use the column switch like normal? Or is the 777 different to every other aircraft in the world?

At TOD into LGW with an empty B777 with just myself and my co-pilot on board we had to don oxygen masks and remained wearing them until after landing.

A couple of issues:

The deafening noise when breathing if the intercom is NOT switched off is a major distraction. Continually trying to co-ordinate breathing/talking and switching is an unwelcome distraction in a demanding situation.

Wearing the full face EROS mask is not something a pilot experiences very often and the isolation it engenders is quite a surprise. e.g. it is almost impossible to look face to face at your colleague, your communication is entirely conducted via the intercom. Not an impossible situation but one rarely experienced in the civilian world.

It's suprising that manufacturers and airlines don't pay attention to small things like masks and communications . If they are capable in putting their engg degrees to put in cup holders in every nook definately they can design oxygen mask more user friendly .
Most flight crews can't manage comm in a sim situation with masks, dread to find myself in a situation where it's critical to wear your mask , get the right switch for O2 , get the smoke diffuser going and bark instructions to RHS....

Could this be another Oil vapor incident?

I cannot begin to tell you how many smoke drills I have conducted in the simulator. Despite a thorough briefing, a lot of people would keep forgetting to switch off their mike when not actually talking and give us all the benefit of their particular version of heavy breathing.

I could always tell when I had ex-military pilots in the front. They were much more disciplined simply because they had come from a background where as many as five crew members would be wearing oxygen masks and they had learned that without discipline, chaos would quickly ensue.

Don't know (yet ;)

Despite the fact that it's currently an "unknown" it's interesting to see how quickly Aerotoxic provided a link.......

G-ZZZC has just landed at LHR looks like it was attended by a fleet of emergency vechiles.Hope everything is OK.