Air carrier flight crew reported a fumes event during cruise due to a malfunctioning oven. Flight diverted and after oven was replaced; continued to destination.
Synopsis
Air carrier flight crew reported a fumes event during cruise due to a malfunctioning oven. Flight diverted and after oven was replaced; continued to destination.
Narrative
Just after reaching the planned cruise altitude of FL320; the Purser called the flight deck and reported smoke and fumes emanating from an oven in the forward galley. The crew actioned the Smoke; Fire; or Fumes non-normal procedure. Even after power was removed from the oven smoked continued billowing from the oven filling the galley and going into the first class cabin. No smoke or fumes were sensed in the flight deck so the pilots did not immediately don smoke masks. The crew; in conjunction with Dispatch; elected to divert to ZZZ which was approximately 60 miles off the nose at this point. The FO was PF and took over comms with ATC and the Captain completed the non-normal procedure and coordinated the divert with Dispatch and the Flight Attendants. We [requested priority handling] and the divert initiated. The Captain conducted the briefing with the Purser. Upon reaching Step XA of the Smoke; Fire; or Fumes procedure which states; 'Do not delay landing in an attempt to complete all of the following steps' and being confident the source of the smoke had been mitigated by removing power from the oven in multiple;ways; the Captain stopped the checklist and focused on landing the aircraft with the FO. ATC vectored the aircraft to the ILS for runway XXR at ZZZ; which is the longest runway available there. An uneventful heavy weight landing was accomplished. The aircraft was on the ground in less than 15 minutes from the start of the incident. The smoke started dissipating during the arrival so the Captain and Purser agreed no evacuation was necessary. CFR (Crash Fire Rescue) met the aircraft and evaluated the exterior of the aircraft and checked brake temperatures and determined the brakes temps were in a normal range and it was safe to taxi.The aircraft taxied to the gate where firefighters boarded the aircraft and determined there was no longer any thermal source for fire or smoke. The passengers were deplaned while maintenance troubleshot the galley oven. Maintenance did find a likely source (either burnt food or melted plastic at the back of the oven) for the smoke. After removing the offending oven no evidence of electrical arcing was found either. A new oven was installed and ops checked to determine that no smoke emanated for the oven or electrical connections. In addition an overweight landing inspection was conducted by maintenance. After the pilots and Flight Attendants debriefed the incident together and the pilots spoke with both the Chief Pilot A and Chief Pilot B; the crew agreed to operate the flight to the scheduled destination; ZZZ1. After referencing diversion procedures and contacting Dispatch; the flight was reset to board and depart for ZZZ1. Pre-flight procedures went smoothly except that ACARS would only do some of the Auto Initialize process so the pilots had to manually load the Initialize page in ACARS and manually load the route. As the aircraft was taxiing out; the crew received a Final Dangerous Summary message for dry ice that had originally been loaded and accepted in the aft cargo pit at the original departure station; ZZZ2. During the pre-flight in ZZZ; no planned dangerous good summary had been sent via ACARS reminding the crew about the dry ice that had been loaded in ZZZ2. The cargo doors had never been opened during the divert. The DG (Dangerous Goods) was accepted and the flight continued to ZZZ1 uneventfully.
Second reporter narrative
Shortly after reaching top of climb at FL320; purser called the flight deck. Captain answered the call. The purser reported black/grey smoke coming from forward galley oven. The oven was in use at the time the smoke started; but continued after the oven was turned off. The purser confirmed she had pulled the circuit breaker for the oven; but smoke was not decreasing. She also mentioned the smoke was entering the first class cabin and it was stinging to the eyes. I opened the Smoke; Fire; or Fumes non-normal checklist from the electronic flight manual as the captain was on the service phone with the purser. When he completed the call; we began the non-normal checklist. We agreed that we did not need to don oxygen masks because we could not see or smell any smoke on the cockpit. We decided diversion was appropriate due to the smoke not decreasing and entering the first class cabin. We completed through step XX of the checklist and the captain called the purser again to determine if any of the checklist steps we had taken had slowed the smoke. Purser confirmed the oven was still smoking and the smoke had not decreased. At step XY of the non-normal; we chose 'Source of the smoke; fire; or fumes is obvious and can be extinguished quickly'. At step XZ we chose 'not decreasing'. We continued through step XA.While we were executing the non-normal checklist; we also divided duties in order communicate inside and outside more effectively. Captain gave me responsibility for flying the aircraft; verbal comm with ATC; and preparing for landing. Captain coordinated with the cabin and dispatch. Dispatch offered diversion options of ZZZ or air return to ZZZ2. We saw that ZZZ was nearby (about 70 miles); we were already pointing there; and the weather was clear. Captain and I agreed that diversion to ZZZ was possible and preferable than returning to ZZZ2. We stopped non-normal checklist at step XA 'Do not delay landing in an attempt to complete all of the following steps.' I realized that successful landing at ZZZ with minimum delay would require me to focus on preparing the aircraft to land. I [requested priority handling] with ZZZ Center while Captain coordinated with dispatch and purser. We were quickly given direct routing and progressive descent. Captain and I agreed that we would 'rejoin' from our respective tasks to brief the arrival before commencing the approach.Initially I set the aircraft up for ILS XXL at ZZZ with brakes 3 and flaps 30. Dispatch gave approval for overweight landing. Captain and I were able to conduct an arrival brief around 15;000' altitude. Shortly after our brief; ZZZ advised we would recover via ILS XXR. Captain reprogrammed the FMC and requested landing data; and we quickly rebriefed the approach. We completed the Descent Checklist.We were vectored to about a 15 mile final and given slight vectors across final to allow enough distance to descend and slow. We configured with gear down fairly early; just below 10;000'; to increase drag and establish normal energy state on final. The weather was clear and there was little traffic. I briefed a 30' flare with minimal float due to our high landing weight (approx 175k pounds). Touchdown was not hard; estimate VVI (Vertical Velocity Indicator) less than 200ft/min; and in the landing zone. We exited XXR at taxiway 1 and we were met by CFR (Crash Fire Rescue). CFR performed a visual inspection and checked our brake temperatures. Meanwhile; captain checked with purser to assess the status of the smoke from the oven. Purser agreed that evacuation was not necessary and taxi to the gate would be prudent. CFR confirmed we did not have hot brakes and allowed us to continue taxi. We coordinated with Tower and Ground for taxi to the gate.Fire personnel boarded the aircraft at the gate while passengers remained seated after shutdown. We were cleared to deplane. Captain and I debriefed and then captain conducted a debrief with the cabin crew. Captain called the ChiefPilot after block in. The Chief Pilot conducted fatigue assessments on us individually. I did not feel fatigued. The Chief Pilot cleared us to continue. Maintenance performed overweight landing inspection. Maintenance replaced the oven and found burned residue inside the smoking oven. Captain requested ops check of the oven before continuing. Purser ran oven the over for 15 minutes at the gate without smoke.We were dispatched to continue to ZZZ1 after approximately 2 hours on the ground in ZZZ. Ground operations were mostly normal; except the FMC ACARS would not fully initialize. We had to manually enter flight data; crew numbers; as well as the route. But we did get 'most' of the automatic ACARS messages normally associated with initialization. We attempted initialization at least twice. ACARS radio connectivity appeared functional; we never received a 'NO COMM' message. All performance uploads worked; as well as Final Weights. Also; we received Long Tarmac Delay messages in ACARS after block-out at ZZZ; even though we had not encountered a Long Tarmac Delay event on either flight.During taxi out to runway XXR at ZZZ for departure; we received a final DG (Dangerous Goods) summary over ACARS. We had been loaded with dry ice on the ground at ZZZ2; and conducted normal DG preflight procedures there. However; during the diversion recovery at ZZZ; we did not receive an initial DG summary after ACARS initialization. Neither the captain nor I thought about our loaded DG during the diversion recovery ground ops at the gate in ZZZ. We did not send ACARS code prior to releasing brakes at the gate because we did not have any cues to do so. We both realized that oversight when the Final DG Summary appeared on the printer during taxi-out. We subsequently sent the code after that message appeared. Flight from ZZZ to ZZZ1 was uneventful.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.