B737 flight crew reported a loss of Hydraulic System A pressure and fluid; resulting in a diversion to the nearest suitable airport.
Synopsis
B737 flight crew reported a loss of Hydraulic System A pressure and fluid; resulting in a diversion to the nearest suitable airport.
Narrative
I was in the aft restroom for approximately 5 min when I heard FO made an PA announcement 'Person A hurry back we are loosing Hyd fluid' I quickly finished and went to the flight deck and took my seat; noticed FO was into the QRH for Hyd low press light; I asked whats going on; he pointed to the A sys Hyd qty and it was less than 20%; I said I have the aircraft; and asked what he has had accomplished; prompted to the QRH and where he was on the checklist. I looked down for a diversion city and saw ZZZ at 160 miles; I advised FO lets go to ZZZ; he recommended ZZZ1 100 miles behind us; long runway; agreed with him and while I was flying with AP on; he [notified ATC] and asked to divert to ZZZ1; Center gave us a left turn and a descent. While I made the turn and started the descend I advised the FO I have the airplane and the radio; and directed him to run the A sys hyd loss check list in QRH. While descending I changed the destination in the FMC to ZZZ1 and went to ACARS and sent a dispatch message.As we got close to ZZZ1 and QRH was read and complied with; I advised FO the we will extend the gear on left downwind to Runway 18L just in case we run into issues for extending the Gear. We extended the gear and everything worked normal; we received some residual fluid back and I believe the Qty went up; do not remember to what percentage. we had 6 down and lock green lights; we had fire rescue standing by. I landed on 18L smoothly and rolled off taxiways B and stopped for fire rescue to do visual inspection; they advised after landing there was no residue on the runway; with that said we taxied to gate B10 while fire and rescue followed.We parked then I heard from fire rescue on the frequency that there is a high press spray leak on the right wheel well; spraying fluid on number 3 tire creating a puddle. Aircraft parked I went outside to see the leak and took videos for Maintenance Control and stated to communicate with Maintenance Control. Asked FO to do a Electronic Log Book via ACARS. Eventually fire rescue recommended to turn off the packs and the APU which we did.
Second reporter narrative
While cruising along at FL410 the hydraulic master caution light came on. At this point I looked up at the over head panel to see the low pressure light on for the Engine (ENG) 1 hydraulic A pump. I pulled up the system pages and saw hydraulic system A was at 20% capacity. While I was monitoring the quantity; I saw it dropping; 19%; then 18%. The CA was using the restroom so I made a PA for him to come up when he can (we were an empty ferry flight). At this point I pulled out the low hydraulic pressure QRH and ran that procedure which only called for turning that pump off. After we turned off the ENG 1 hydraulic pump; the quantity was still dropping. At this point the CA and I knew we had a leak that we couldn't isolate and he'd eventually run out of fluid so we decided to divert to the nearest airport. We [requested priority handling] as it's a primary flight control system and we needed to get on the group ASAP before we lost all fluid. ZZZ was about 80 miles ahead of us but ZZZ1 which we just passed had a longer runway so we decided to go there instead. The CA coordinated with dispatch while I spoke with ATC about the divert. While enroute to ZZZ1; the CA and I reviewed the loss of hydraulic system A if it came to that. To our surprise we never lost hydraulic pressure in system A even though the quantity hit zero. Because we still had hydraulic pressure we never had to run the loss of system A so we used normal landing gear extension. However we did switch the nose wheel steering to the ALT mode just in case. Pressure dropped to about 2;000 PSI during gear extension but came back up after the gear were down and locked. We landed normally and had airport fire personnel inspection the plane and follow us to the gate. They reported a steam of fluid leaking from the right side of the plane near the main landing gear.
More incidents for this aircraft family →
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.