Air carrier flight crew reported an EICAS 'Equipment Cooling' message followed by other multiple components failure including weather radar during cruise. The flight crew elected to request priority handling to the closest suitable airport where a safe landing was completed.
Synopsis
Air carrier flight crew reported an EICAS 'Equipment Cooling' message followed by other multiple components failure including weather radar during cruise. The flight crew elected to request priority handling to the closest suitable airport where a safe landing was completed.
Narrative
During my deadhead (DH) flight Aircraft X to ZZZ2; after approximately 3hrs of flight; Captain walked up to me and mentioned that we were having an issue with the Electronic Equipment Bay and that the Equip Cooling Caution message had come up. I quickly put my stuff away and joined them in the flight deck to assist with the situation. After settling down on the third seat I was brief by First Officer (FO) about the situation; since Captain was in the restroom at this moment. I was told by FO that up to that point they had completed the appropriate QRH checklist and that the message had gone away; but that their displays began to malfunction one by one in various ways. Also; their VHF #1 radio became Inoperable. At this point the malfunction had being going on for approximately 30-40 mins before I showed up to the flight deck. A few moments went on; we crossed over to US airspace and we were now talking to ZZZ Center. We were informed by Center that there was a line of thunderstorms ahead and to advice of any deviations. At the same time Dispatch sent a message about the same weather. I then began working the weather radar; and that's when I noticed that it also had become inoperable. This is when we began the discussion of potentially diverting to ZZZ1 as it was our closest suitable airport. Since the weather radar had now become inoperable; the ability to avoid thunderstorms was going to become difficult because the day was also turning to night. We asked Center for vectors around the storms as we continued to look for other solutions and at the same time I was continually talking to Company over ACARS messages to try to keep them in the loop; since both Captain and First Officer were busy flying and communicating with ATC.At some point in our discussion; we came to the agreement that a diversion was to be conducted to ZZZ because ZZZ1 was now behind us and the weather was better at ZZZ. Also since multiple system failures had occurred; our ability to see and avoid the thunderstorms was not possible and there was an intermittent burning smell; it reinforced our decision. Once the decision was made; Captain [requested priority handling] with Center and asked for direct vectors to ZZZ. I began running the performance data; requested the weather and NOTAMs at ZZZ while Captain and FO set up for an approach into ZZZ. As we were descending; I messaged Dispatch about our [priority handling]; about our fuel on board upon landing and our ETA as well. Once we were in the terminal area; we began to try to burn off as much as we could to avoid and overweight landing; but while doing so; the Equip Cooling Message showed up again and the QRH says to land at the nearest suitable airport. And that's what we did. We turned the aircraft towards the airport and performed the ILS approach to Runway XX in ZZZ.
Second reporter narrative
Almost 3 hours into the flight; and shortly after 'Fuel/tank Eng' EICAS message; we got an EICAS Caution 'Equip Cooling'I called for the checklist and my First Officer (FO) ran it; the message went away but minutes later both side Navigation Displays (NDs) and Primary Flight Displays (PFDs) starting to malfunction; they would go on gray mode and come back; Captain PFD blanked for a few minutes; a message 'RSTR INOP' showed up on both NDs. Also; Radio #1 stopped working; and later the weather radar stooped painting (there were multiple lines of weather in the area).While all these malfunctions are occurring; sporadic electrical burning smell came to the flight deck. None of these occurrences were mentioned in the QRH; but we related them to the equip cooling situation.We decided to get highly proactive and start looking for possible suitable diversion airports since it was an item on the QRH if the issue came back. We started to get Dispatch in the loop with all the issues arising via ACARS. I call my deadheading FO to the flight deck to support us for the rest of the flight.It was when we lost count of the malfunctions and had no weather radar going into the night when we took a firm decision to divert to ZZZ air base. We started by relaying our situation but later upgraded to a [priority handling]. We had a large number of considerations every step of the way; one of them being an overweight landing. We asked for delayed vectors near the field and tried to burn as much fuel as we could to land below max landing weight but as we were doing so; the EICAS Equip Cooling came back; and per the QRH it was time to land at the nearest suitable airport. We decided to not take any chances and bring the plane to the ground immediately. An overweight landing was performed. The touchdown was made with Flaps 30; vref 162 at less than 200 ft./min using max auto brakes and full reversers since the runway was shortened by approximately 2000 ft.We kept in constant communication with ATC who didn't let us move any further at Taxiway X until we had a marshaller and a definite parking spot. I had to contact Dispatch and Maintenance to get more assistance on what to do next to avoid further equipment overheating; since we were now on the ground and there's no guidance on the QRH about what to do after landing.We finally got personnel to park us and air base personnel to escort us out. We left the airplane dark and doors closed awaiting for Maintenance to take over.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.