BA jumbo evacuated in fumes scare

[CockpitCat]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jphv-0f76lkzR3ufgcFkl0K_JksA

Hundreds of people aboard a British Airways jet have been evacuated just before take-off after reports of smoke in the cabin.
The London Heathrow-bound Boeing 747 had just pushed back from the departure gate at Phoenix Airport in Arizona, US, when the fumes were spotted.
The pilot promptly decided to evacuate all 298 passengers on board using the emergency slides.
British Airways said everyone was evacuated safely, with around 15 passengers receiving minor cuts and bruises.
Flight BA288 had been preparing to take off at 3.40am UK time on Saturday.
A BA spokesman said: "The plane was being pushed back from the stand when there were reports of smoke. A decision was taken to evacuate the aircraft following the usual procedures."
He added: "Our customer service staff at Phoenix are caring for the passengers and organising hotel rooms for them."
Engineers are now on board the aircraft trying to find out what happened.

[11Fan]

Now if that was Ryanair, you would have to pay extra for the slide ride.

Pre-flight entertainment charges apply.

[shamrock]

On a very large cruising discussion board, one member has posted their account of this incident. Several big red flags in what happened inside the plane should become very evident...

We are booked on the July 19 Crown Princess British Isles cruise. We planned to spend 8 days in London before the cruise. We are traveling with our 2 DD's who are 8 and 12. We were booked yesterday on BA #288. We had the four middle seats on row 42. Getting to sleep quickly on the plane was a priority. We were in our seats for 15-20 minutes and we did more “unpacking” than one would see on a domestic flight. We all got our neck pillows ready to go, removed our shoes, put our wallets and stuff in the seat pockets in front of us. DH wound up his belt and stowed it too, all to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. The girls put on slippers or booties, etc. The captain made all the welcoming announcements, and they started the safety video.

It was hot on the plane. We looked for a personal fan and saw that 747’s don’t seem to have them. We know that environmental control can be uneven and tricky, and we took comfort in knowing that we’d cool off once we took off. Over the next couple minutes it became as hot as we’ve been on a plane, probably upper 80’s. At this time we pushed back.

Then the smell started. You know how heaters can sort of stink when you first turn them on? We thought it was that kind of thing—a temporary odor that would pass. But it didn’t, and you started to see people around the cabin holding stuff in front of their noses, coughing, looking around. There was no smoke, just acrid, caustic fumes that smelled bad if you breathed shallowly but which burned your throat if you inhaled deeply. Two rows up was a couple with a little baby a couple months old, and they started increasingly freaking out about the baby and the odor. The captain announced that they had a really bad smell in the flight deck and were looking into it. He also said that they were going to get pushed back to the gate. I can’t recall if this was two separate announcements or one long one.

Anyways, the acrid odor didn’t improve, and perhaps got worse. DH remembers having several thoughts at this time—that handling the odor, and getting pushed back to the gate, was taking much longer that it should; that this problem was sufficiently bad that we weren’t proceeding to London without a total deplaning and maintenance check that would take hours; that it would take a long time for 300 people to exit the plane with all their stuff (it took 30 minutes to board), and people weren’t going to want to breathe this air for nearly as long as that would take; and that, once we did exit the plane, there was no way they would let us back on to retrieve our stuff. Anticipating that we'd have to deplane the conventional way into the terminal, we put our shoes back on and grabbed our wallets and a couple of the carry-on items. If we were going to deplane, DH wanted to be as far forward as possible, so we walked forward from row 42 to a galley area around row 35. The aisle was empty, but more people were starting to get up. As it happened, the over-wing exit door was in the galley right next to me. We realized we had 3 of our 4 carry ons. We asked the flight attendant some question about the smell, and she said something to the effect of I don’t know, this has never happened before. I went back to row 42 to retrieve our last carry on from the overhead bin.

Soon thereafter people started saying “fire, fire” in a controlled but panicky way—I know that’s an oxymoron. We were on the right side and they were on the left. DH looked over and was pretty sure he saw white smoke, not pouring or gushing, just some hazy stuff over there. Anyways, that was when we first started processing this as an emergency. I don’t know if we were still moving toward the gate if we’d arrived. There had certainly been no indication that we were going to start exiting the plane any time soon. DH saw one of the left side emergency doors open and start to deploy right across from us. DD says that the door handle was pulled by a passenger. I didn’t see it. DH did see the flight attendant by him yell “what the **** do you think you are doing!” or words to that effect in response to the emergency door opening. At no point did we hear the captain or anyone else say “abandon ship.” But once the first emergency exit deployed, there was no way to stop the rest. People were choking and gasping from the fumes and desperate for fresh air. DH said something to our flight attendant like “open the ****** door!!” which he and the girls were right next to. So the attendant did, with what seemed like resignation.

This door requires you to step on the wing and then take a slide that deploys from the back of the wing to the ground. Probably the least scary slide. The girls and DH were the first ones down it, and were probably among the first 10 people off the plane. There was no on the tarmac to guide or help, so they just walked a hundred yards away by some maintenance vehicles and watched. Many seconds after that the rearmost emergency slide deployed, and I think after that the upper deck one. All told, I bet 60 seconds passed between the first and last slides deploying. Which is fast in one sense, but to my mind, more consistent with a chain reaction of panic rather than a single order from the captain. I came off the next slide back and sort of rotated on my way down and skinned my knees hitting the pavement. Within a minute or two all four of us were together on the runway.

Within a couple minutes dozens of emergency vehicles surrounded us. We were on the tarmac for 15-20 minutes before they led us inside. Contrary to at least one press report, I saw no bus. We were led on a long parade back to the security checkpoint, where they told us to go to the BA ticket counter. The Phoenix BA ticket counter was totally overwhelmed, with 2 or 3 people handling a task that needed ten times that number. In fairness to BA, they do one flight a day out of Phoenix and were woefully understaffed. Still, they seemed to have no plan, no contingency binder on the shelf somewhere. We should have gone home immediately, but one has a hope that if one patiently sticks around it will do some good. The girls and I went home and DH stayed three hours and ascertained that our remaining carryon was not in the first batch of luggage to come off. Plus he filled out some papers to enable me to get counseling for stress at BA’s expense.

This morning we got on the phone with BA and are re-booked to fly to Denver on US Airways and then take the Denver-Heathrow nonstop. The girls are not looking forward to getting back on a plane. We're just hoping to sort out the luggage situation and retrieve and personal items we left on the plane.

Not a fun experience but we will persevere to London and enjoy the rest of our cruise and vacation experience

[shamrock]

Going by the above account, it was passengers who opened the emergency doors without the instruction to do so being given by the crew. Also the passengers were getting their belongings out of the overheads before exiting the plane.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but aren't both things potentially extremely dangerous in a moving aircraft...even if there is a bad smell permeating through the cabin?

[Dantheman]

Better safe than sorry folks. It could have been much worse depending on the circumstances that would have been brought about during/after takeoff whatever so forth.

If I were on that flight I would be thankful to be alive.

From the above account, the captain said abandon ship only seconds after the emergency doors were opened by passengers.

[CockpitCat]

Uneven dispersal of fumes throughout the a/c might cause some pax to be affected more than others, which would explain the slight "panic" of some to start opening the doors...?

Only by constantly patrolling the aisles would cabin crew be aware of the situation in all parts of the a/c, so that they would be in a position to tell the pilot to stop the plane ASAP, to allow disembarking via the slides...?

[saupatel]

Good old BA. That aircraft is still sitting here and i see it on my ride to work everyday. I guess it wasn't a minor problem.

[Deadstick]

It takes a bit to put those slides back together.

[saupatel]

Slides were in the very next day. The only thing open was the main door. Today i saw it parked at the terminal 3 (NW/DL Gates) so i am guessing the problem is solved and the bird is on its way back

By the way, does anyone know what caused the fumes?

[ihatemondays]

Any info which registration this BA 747 has?

Thx Torsten

[saupatel]

I can let you know tonight. I will be driving by there on my way back home from work. Its still parked at the gate.

[ihatemondays]

I'd appreciate that. Thanks!

[saupatel]

Sure enough as soon as i say that .... it was gone .

The flight was BAW 9258.

Data from ACARS
17/07/2009 09:40 British British Airways BA9258 PHX-LHR 000f SBS-1 Callsign: BAW9258
17/07/2009 08:58 G-CIVB B744 British Airways BA9258 PHX-LHR S94A