A321 Engine Failure Alarm
 

I have been recently speaking to a pilot who was flying an A321 a chartered flight to Jersy. He is used to flying short haul flights no more than two hour duration. Whylst about 100nm out from land and at about 20,000 ft he heard (what he thought) was the alarm for an engine failure. The only time he had heard this horn sounding was in the simulator for the A321. He went through the appropiate procedures but soon realised that the EICAS was not indicating and engine malfunction. At that point an air hostess entered the cokpit to report she had found a passenger smoking in the toilet. The emergency horn for an engine failure is the same as that for the smoke detectors in the toilets. This incident brought about undue stress and worry on the crew just because a passenger waas smoking in the toilets. Does anybody have any views on the A321's emergency horns?

genius-747

The the inital sound heard for any fire or smoke detected is a master warning and the CRC aural warning.

The ECAM messages you get for smoke/fire are :

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There is no fire bottle that lights up in the cockpit, as there is an automatic fire extinguisher in the waste bin.

The lavatory smoke detector feeds into the smoke detection and control unit, which feeds the smoke warning to BOTH the cockpit (LAVATORY SMOKE on ECAM) and to pursar station giving a cabin warning.

It sounds like the cabin waring went off okay, they lead the hostess to the toilet to find the person smoking....

Your friend should know that a master warning in flight does not always mean an engine fire.

I am not aware of a aural alarm specific to "engine failure".

Maybe if the crew had taken the time to read the ECAM and respond appropriately then there might not have been so much 'undue stress'.

Also: A321's can't land at Jersey, certainly not at charter weights. Hmmm...

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...proceeding below Decision Height with CAUTION...

If he was 100 nm from land approaching Jersey where was he coming from - the States? mmmmmmmm

genius-747 has a long history of posting really quite obscure questions that don't add up.

I came to the conclusion that his scenarios are fantasy.

Perhaps his username is a misnomer?

Oh. I forgot he also deletes his original post when he receives replies questioning the bona fides of his posting.

[This message has been edited by M.Mouse (edited 18 June 2001).]

Hi Genius, if that was really how your "friend" responded to a standard ECAM warning, then its high time he returns to groundschool before he hurts anyone! :-)