2009-12 · NASA ASRS report 866895
Communications between the A320 flight crew; flight attendants; ATC and ground personnel were all compromised when the evacuation alarm activated during the approach and could not be silenced until maintenance disabled it at the gate.
On approach to our destination we got an EVAC alarm in the cockpit and could hear it in the cabin as well. I was pilot flying; so I continued to fly the airplane. I took the radios as well while the Captain addressed the issue. The interphone was unusable so we couldn't talk with the flight attendants right away. I continued to fly the aircraft to landing while the Captain determined that nothing was wrong in the back at that time. We could only momentarily silence the EVAC alarm with our button or by holding it in. Sometimes even holding it in wouldn't silence it. I landed uneventfully. It was very difficult to understand the taxi instructions due to the noise. On taxi-in the APU generator would not come online. The assigned gate did not have power. So we had to clear equipment and move over to the next gate. On the ground; the emergency call sounded. We didn't know if the flight attendants were trying to communicate something new to us. The Captain stopped and directed me to go ahead and look through the peep hole and then crack the door to see if all was still OK. All was OK. We parked at the new gate. EVAC horn kept going off until maintenance came on board and pulled several CBs. It would not have been prudent to get into the books at the phase of flight we were and considering this particular situation.
We began receiving intermittent repetitive ECAM alerts for a CIDS (Cabin Information Display System) fault. I made a passenger advisory assuring the passengers that the noise they were hearing was a faulty Flight Attendant communication panel and that there was no concern for the flight; or for any action upon landing. I informed them the landing would be normal and to please remain seated upon landing. While the alarm was a nuisance; as we were already on initial approach in VMC conditions; we did not feel a need to declare an emergency. I feel that this is a strong enough distraction/communication issue that there should be a readily accessible master switch for the entire CIDS system. I want to point out that according to both practice and flight manual system pages the evacuation alarm selector switch is hard wired in the Captain and Purser position. To the best of my recollection; our training (3 schools on this aircraft) has always taught that this is not a switch for us to move as it is permanently wired in the Captain and Purser position. On this aircraft it was wired with double strand thick stainless steel safety wire into the Captain and Purser position -- although the guard obscures that labeling. In hindsight review; there is a system fault reset in the A320 Flight manual for uncommanded EVAC Alarm. However; due to the non-breakable safety wire; this procedure cannot be accomplished. In my opinion this must be corrected ASAP to thin breakable wire - typical of the copper wire guarding other items.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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