2008-02 · NASA ASRS report 776748
B767 FLT ATTENDANT DETECTS ELECTRICAL FUMES IN THE CABIN DURING TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT AND RESOURCEFUL OFF DUTY FO LOCATES THE SOURCE IN A SEAT CONTROL AND DISABLES IT.
I WAS THE FO AND OUR POS WAS SOMEWHERE OVER THE ATLANTIC DURING THE FOLLOWING EVENT. I WAS ON SECOND BREAK WHEN APCHED BY A FLT ATTENDANT CONCERNED ABOUT SOME FUMES THAT HE SMELLED IN BUSINESS CLASS. THE AREA OF CONCERN WAS ISOLATED TO THE CTL PANEL OF THE LUMBAR CTL OF A SEAT. AFTER INITIALLY DISCOVERING THE FUMES I SPOKE WITH THE CAPT VIA THE INTERPHONE TO INFORM HIM OF THE SITUATION. I TOLD HIM WE WERE INVESTIGATING SOME FUMES IN THE BUSINESS CLASS SECTION OF THE ACFT. THE SMELL OF THE FUMES SEEMED TO BE COMING FROM AN ELECTRICAL SOURCE OR HOT; BURNING PLASTIC. WE QUICKLY ISOLATED THE FUMES TO BE ORIGINATING FROM THE SEAT CTLS. I ASKED THE FLT ATTENDANTS TO SECURE ALL KNOWN PWR TO THE PAX SEATS WHILE I UPDATED THE CAPT VIA INTERPHONE. THE FLT ATTENDANTS SECURED ALL AUDIO AND VIDEO PWR TO THE CABIN PAX SEATS. DURING MY CONVERSATION WITH THE CAPT A FLT ATTENDANT APCHED ME WITH A FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN HAND AND INFORMED ME THAT SMOKE WAS NOW VISIBLY COMING OUT OF THE LUMBAR CTL PANEL TO THE SEAT. I TOLD HIM TO MONITOR THE SITUATION AND TO DISCHARGE THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER IF FLAMES APPEARED. I UPDATED THE CAPT WITH THIS INFO AND WE DECIDED TO SECURE THE UTILITY BUS SWITCHES. THE SMOKE DISSIPATED QUICKLY ONCE THE UTILITY BUS SWITCHES WERE TURNED OFF. I USED A SMALL STRAIGHTEDGE TO LOOSEN THE SCREWS TO THE LUMBAR CTL PANEL AND REMOVE THE DEFECTIVE PANEL. THE DEFECTIVE PART WAS VISIBLY OBVIOUS. I UPDATED THE CAPT WITH THE SITUATION. HE INSPECTED THE DEFECTIVE PANEL AND AS A CREW; PLTS AND FLT ATTENDANTS; DECIDED THE SITUATION WAS ISOLATED AND COMPLETE. PWR WAS RESTORED AND THE FLT CONTINUED WITHOUT INCIDENT. I AM UNSURE WHAT OUTSIDE COMS THE CAPT MADE DURING THE INCIDENT. I FELT HE WAS COMMUNICATING WITH OUTSIDE SOURCES; GIVING THEM THE INFO I WAS RELAYING TO HIM. AFTER THE INCIDENT WAS OVER; I CONTINUED ON BREAK AND ASSUME MAINT AND DISPATCH WAS NOTIFIED SINCE WE CONTINUED WITHOUT DIVERTING.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.