Flight emergency; ash to blame?
18.04.10
A flight that took off from Manchester airport to pick up stranded holidaymakers was aborted after the pilot smelt ash and reported an engine fault, the Sun reports. The captain described a ‘quite intense’ smell of volcanic ash. Later he told air traffic control: ‘We've lost one of our engine bleeds, possible through a contaminated valve.’ The pilot abandoned the flight, making a detour out over the North Sea to dump fuel before returning to the airport.
The Boeing 757 operating flight TCX952P for holiday company Thomas Cook had left Manchester Airport heading for Corfu to pick up stranded passengers, with only crew on board, when the drama began shortly after 01:00 this morning. The Sun says experts 'fear ash may have clogged up the engine bleed valve, which sucks air into the cabin to maintain pressure.'
The pilot alerted air traffic controllers about the problem at 20,000ft over Stafford on the way to the plane's cruising altitude of 39,000ft. The captain said: ‘We've had the smell of ash in the aircraft and twice one of our engine bleed-airs has failed. We're pretty sure it's volcanic ash.’
The controller asks: ‘Are you declaring an emergency?’ Pilot: ‘Negative. But I think we may request descent to 35 (35,000ft) when we've got ourselves sorted. We may request further descent if we can't get it to pressurise properly.’
After the controller gives permission to descend, the captain says: ‘In the climb, we could smell the ash. The smell stayed on for a while. Once we'd levelled at 39 (39,000ft) we then lost one engine bleed, so we've taken all the required actions for volcanic ash encounter.’ He later says a strong smell was encountered at 16,000ft.
After a request from the captain to be allowed to land quickly - a priority landing rather than an emergency landing - the Boeing returned safely to Manchester Airport. Thomas Cook said the flight was aborted as a 'precautionary measure' because of a ‘minor technical fault with its air conditioning’. The spokesman said it was not caused by ash and the plane was in no danger.
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