BCF Discharge on Flightdeck
 

Chaps,

Your opinions please ...

In a 737-300 (not the biggest of cockpits) a couple of days ago, there was a loud bang followed by an ever increasing hissing noise ...
Basically, the BCF decided to discharge itself through a faulty 'neck seal'.

As it happened, we were on the ground boarding passengers when this happened, and we were able to take it outside and open the DV windows to ventilate.

My question is this --> If it happened in flight, would the quantity of Halon in such a confined space be dangerous to the flightcrew ?

Thanks in advance

AltFlaps

I could be wrong but my understanding is that BCF only becomes dangerous after using on a fire.

Thanks, I appreciate that, but surely at some point, the volume of non-breathable Halon will displace enough of the oxygen in the air to make it dangerous ?

BCF's job is to extinguish fires by replacing oxygen. Since you need O2 to live I would be inclined to use the masks if the extinguisher goes bang in the cockpit.

wouldn't it be easy just to remove the BCF from the cockpit and move it back to one of the lavatory in that case??

BCF is toxic. The Australian Army had a incident in the late 80s involving the accidental discharge of a BCF extinguisher in a Pilatus Porter. One soldier died.

If it happened in flight, I for one would immediately go onto 100% Oxy and then look at ways of dissapating the agent.

A lot of Airlines, including mine, state in their manuals that if you discharge a BCF in the Flight Deck then all crew should don oxy masks on 100%.

BCF is only toxic when pyrolised, otherwise it is an asphyxiant

Halon for what it is worth is now a banned and cannot be produced as it attacks the Ozone layer, but there are still a lot in service and in stock with companies, it is a far better extinguisher than the replacements now on offer...

for more see

http://www.h3r.com/products/cockpit_fe.htm

Not everywhere it's not, China (and I believe India) still produce in reasonable quantities, not to mention R-12, of course.

Gosh, what an absolute surprise.:rolleyes:

Does anyone have details of how dry powder affects the body? Many GA airplanes have dry powder instead of halon now.