European Airbus drivers - Dome Light for Night Takeoff?
 

I am hearing some scuttlebutt that "in Europe" every night takeoff is done with the cockpit dome light in "Dim" (low) position. The theory is in the event of a catastrophic complete electrical power loss (except for the battery), the switch in low will result in the dome light remaining on, as it is on the Hot Batt bus.

So, what you you guys doing in Europe? You guys built the plane so I am always interested to hear what you folks are doing.

Thank you

There were two reasons for this, historically.

i) The old STBY ATT IND (mechanical) backlight was not available after a failure. In the days prior to ISIS, the dome LT in DIM was a requirement to assure readout.

ii) - not entirely sure on this one - before an essential modification, certain cascading failure could leave the cockpit completely black save for 1 single announciator on OVHD ELEC (bus tie). Pressing this very pb would rectify the situation to a workable state, yet Airbus mandated DIM because completely dark was too awkward, not to mention being unable to find that saviour button in case its internal source had been fried.

These days, I am not aware of any requirement to enforce it. My best informed guess.

Search for BA incident, I only got 2 near misses:

Serious incident Airbus A320-232 N462UA, (aviation-safety.net)
Airbus faces demands for A320 series electrical systems improvement following EasyJet report | News | Flight Global

Dome light on for TO disappeared from the FCOM in about 2014 when the last of the extant aircraft were modded.

No SOP prescribed in Europe’s largest Airbus narrowbody operator.

thank you everyone.

Even with the aforementionned problem, it's always a compromise between two options.
The risk here is something rather serious but has an extremely low probability of occurrence.
The downside with having the dome light on (even dim) is having reduced crew night vision. So a much smaller risk, but every time.

How many times did the complete lighting failure occur, among how many flights ?
I would have assessed that before asking anything about dome light on.

Never heard of dome light on takeoff at my operator (up to 150 320s were used)

This one: A319, south of London UK, 2005 | SKYbrary Aviation Safety

Aircraft Accident Report 2/2008 - Airbus A319-131, G-EUOB, 22 October 2005 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The other consideration is when in the latter stages of the Emer Evac Cxlist ("All fire PB... Push), the dome light or a torch becomes your only source of light to read & complete the checklist. I've seen it missed in the sim & made life harder at a critical time.

From FCTM, EMERGENCY EVACUATION procedure:

On ground with engines stopped, the right dome light automatically illuminates whatever the
position of the DOME light sw. This allows to have the necessary cockpit lighting to complete the
EMER EVAC procedure.

Interesting. Is that from A350 FCTM? Cause on the A320 you must turn it on manually.

Sorry, didn’t specify. 330 NEO

G-EUOB, major electric loss on the climbout out of LHR, 22. Oct 2005.

Full report.

Summary.