Air China flight CA106 drops 21,000 ft after pilot smoking incident

a reply to: Zaphod58

Given the potential catastrophic ramifications of operating this ventilation system incorrectly, aren't there safeguards in place to prevent this?

I assume that newer digital control panels would display warnings and require additional operations to ensure the operator actually intended to bypass those safety measures.

Maybe this was an older aircraft with analog controls?

In any event it is a bit troubling to think that a plane full of passengers could die because somebody pushed one wrong button.


-dex

a reply to: DexterRiley

There are warnings, but it's possible for the crew to misidentify the issue. Helios 522 is a great example. They landed on the leg before the mishap flight with a frozen door seal, and air conditioning issues. The mechanic worked the problem, and put the cabin pressure switch to manual to do his work. When he signed off, he didn't put the switch back to auto.

On the mishap flight, the crew received a cabin pressure warning that they misidentified as a takeoff configuration warning and continued to climb. They received multiple warnings indicating pressure problems, but by the time anyone on the ground asked them to verify the switch was in AUTO, they were already suffering the early stages of hypoxia and didn't hear or ignored the question.

The CAAC has hammered the pilots and Air China over the incident. They ordered Air China to reduce 737 hours by 10%, suspended all their applications for new routes, imposed a fine of CNY50,000, and launched a 90 day safety review.

The pilot flying has had his license revoked, the pilot monitoring has had his suspended 6 months, as well as having a 2 year grounding, and the dispatcher had their dispatcher license suspended 2 years.

www.flightglobal.com...