An A320 with an unmodified electrical system; lost complete electrical in flight after generator 1 failed. An emergency was declared as electrical power restored itself and the flight crew returned the aircraft for an overweight landing.
Synopsis
An A320 with an unmodified electrical system; lost complete electrical in flight after generator 1 failed. An emergency was declared as electrical power restored itself and the flight crew returned the aircraft for an overweight landing.
Narrative
I agreed to do this working to find the cause of the aircraft malfunction. The time line will include pre-flight till block-in. 1. Pre-flight. We showed up at aircraft; APU on with ADIRUs aligned. I turned off system and started new alignment. This is normal for maintenance. The jetway was at aircraft; but no power. While aircraft was at gate jetway lost power. I do not know if aircraft lost external power or maintenance started APU before jetway died. 2. Push back and startup normal procedures; only thing to note is when engine generators came on line; a very hard transfer from APU to engine generators. Any bus driver knows what I am talking about. You hear it in the radio and see it in the screens. I have been told used to be common; now is rare enough that it catches one's attention. 3. Taxi out normal. 4. Takeoff normal; not a rabbit but at that weight normal. 5. Passing approx 3000 FT; I called for managed speed. First Officer pushed in button. Nothing happened. At this time we were in climb power and probably 7-8 degrees nose high; no bank. He tried to set 250 by pulling; the flight control unit did not accept input. I tried to put on autopilot; did not accept this. Passing 5000 FT. Left generator went off line; all left screens went black. First Officer said his had diagonal line through his for a moment then his went black. 6. Our indications were no screens; no lights. Looked like walking into a simulator with no power or batteries on. During this time radios stopped; we had a bump of pressurization; felt in the ears; and only light was the moon. I have been asked by several people; what ECAMs did we run? None at first. WE DID NOT HAVE ANY. The RAT did not deploy; we had 0 screens. 7. Our actions were first instinct; need power. First Officer started APU. While that was starting right generator came back on line. I guess was 10-15 seconds from start of this. To be honest; my guess of time probably is not accurate. We were not timing it. 8. When right generator came back on line; it was like a ground start-up with cold aircraft. All the computers went through their test mode. When the flight computers came on line; the plane would move or jerk slightly. After a period of time 1-2 minutes the ECAM was clearing itself till all that was left was Generator 1; FAC #1 and auto-throttle thrust lock. The last could be expected. We reset generator one; reset normally. FAC 1 would not reset and I could not get auto-throttles to clear or work so I used manual throttles till block in. 9. We declared emergency during step 8. ATC clearance down wind then cleared us a visual. I boxed the approach; did not want a steep decent or bank in this aircraft. Landed around 166K; overweight. Landing was smooth with normal sink weight. We taxied in and gave aircraft to maintenance. My impression; we lost all power; the generators went off line and for some reason the RAT did not deploy. I can't explain why everything went dark from all screens to lights. If it took electricity to work; it stopped working. I can't explain why number two generator came back on line. In 28 years of flying and 20k hours; this is the first time I can say I do not know what happened in an aircraft. I pride myself on my knowledge and systems; yet I can't explain why for a period of seconds to a minute I was out of electrical power on a plane like an AIRBUS.
Second reporter narrative
I pushed for Managed Speed and the computer either went to 232 KTS or just didn't take the input. We had a short discussion about the speed not going to 250. At this moment we were at approximately 240 KTS and 7 degrees of bank; then EVERYTHING went dark and we experienced a severe pressure change in the cabin. At the moment things started going bad I had just looked at my airspeed to see what the computer was commanding since it didn't go to 250; I then looked at the Captain's airspeed and that was the last indication I saw before things went black. First the Captains ND; PFD and one of the center screens went out. I heard at least one relay click and perhaps several. I moved my scan over to my ND but it had a diagonal white line through it. I don't recall if my PFD had a line through it or if it was just black. After a split second; EVERYTHING was dark. We had no CRT's and there were no ECAMS. The overhead was dark as was the center console. No emergency lighting came on and the RAT did not deploy. I quickly glanced out the forward window but had no reference since we were still turning to the south. All I could see was the darkness of the sky with a few stars. There was no quick reference for the horizon. I then moved my scan back inside to try and focus on the standby instruments. About the time the round shape of the instruments began to come into focus as my eyes adjusted to the darkness the #2 generator seemed to come back on line and things began lighting up again. I don't recall what came back first but my screens were pretty early in the sequence. The Captain apparently was having trouble lowering the nose and he said he didn't have any control of the thrust. He later mentioned that he didn't think he had any side stick control for several seconds. Around this time I asked the Captain if he would like the APU and he said 'yes' so I started it. Once things began coming back on line we got our first ECAM and I called out 'ECAM' and pushed the master caution button. When I looked at the ECAM screen it only had three items. GEN 1 Fail; Auto thrust fail and FAC 1 fail. I asked the Captain if he would like me to declare an emergency and he said 'yes'. I advised ATC that we had an electrical failure and that we were an emergency aircraft and would be returning. I then began looking at the ECAMS. The first ECAM we addressed was the autothrottle. I read the ECAM out loud and the Captain performed the actions. I believe he moved them out of the climb detent and began manual setting thrust. I don't remember if I began working on changing the destination at this point or continued with the ECAMS but over the next several minutes I loaded the destination; input the runway and loaded the PERF page. ATC had advised they would vector us for the visual. Then we reset GEN 1. I don't know if the APU had come on line and was handling the left side at this point or not but GEN 1 came back on line when we cycled the button. Last; we handled the FAC 1 fault. I reset FAC 1 and the plane wiggled noticeably. The Captain said the plane felt strange at some point but I don't recall if it was before or after the FAC reset. I called the flight attendants at some point and gave them a short brief. We gave them a cabin advisory and told them we were returning immediately. Maintenance came to the plane shortly after we arrived and ran the diagnostic through the FMGC. It only showed that GEN 1 had failed.
NASA callback
The reporter stated that he has not heard from his Company what this event's cause was. He is aware of the Airbus emergency electrical bus failures that caused total power loss in the past. This aircraft was not one of the ones with electrical control modifications.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.