Summary
- A British Airways A320 bound for Oslo was diverted due to a smoke report, landed safely in Amsterdam, and gave the all-clear after inspection.
- A minor technical issue caused the diversion, potentially indicating that false crews are trained to work as a team approach during fires, with roles like firefighter, communicator, and runner.
On 15th May, a British Airways A320 was operating flight 764 from London to Oslo Gardermoen airport. This flight takes off at 16:45 local time and is airborne for 01:45 minutes before touching down in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
What happened on BA764?
According to data from Flightradar24, the aircraft took off nearly an hour late at 17:50. Around midway, the Avherald reported that the aircraft had diverted to Amsterdam after the flight deck personnel had reported smoke. The aircraft landed safely at Schiphol Airport, where the local fire department met it. After a subsequent examination, they could not detect any evidence of a fire.
Photo: Ceri Breeze | Shutterstock
The Herald reported that, according to the airline, a minor technical error led to the diversion—this may indicate a false alarm.
An airline representative told Simple Flying :
This aircraft was diverted into Amsterdam Schiphol Airport as a precaution following a minor technical issue onboard. We apologize to our customers for the disruption to their travel plans.
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The aircraft landed safely.
British Airways arranged for an alternative aircraft to continue the disrupted flight to Norway, adding that despite the incident only turning out to be a technical issue, safety remains their utmost priority. They would never operate a flight that could be unsafe.
What do cabin crew do in case of a fire onboard?
Unfortunately, fire indications can turn out to be very real. How do the cabin crew respond to these inflight emergencies if that were the case?
We briefly covered this in a previous article; here are some key elements to bear in mind :
The FAA instruction states that a “team approach” is required during a fire on an aircraft. All flight crew members have specific roles to ensure a comprehensive approach. There are three leading roles:
- Firefighter: Typically a flight attendant, this crew member aggressively locates the source of the fire and makes every effort to extinguish it using the appropriate procedure based on the nature of the fire. For example, lithium battery fires should be treated differently from other burning objects. Using a halon or water extinguisher will be the solution in most cases.
- Communicator: A second crew member acts as the communicator, relaying information to the flight deck, including the location, source, and severity of the fire. In addition to keeping the flight deck updated with all relevant information, the communicator’s role can also include informing passengers of the situation while keeping them calm.
- Runner: The ‘runner’ role may include obtaining additional firefighting supplies, relocating passengers, distributing towels to breathe through, and ensuring that the aircraft and therapeutic oxygen bottles are moved out of the immediate area.
So even though these events are rare, cabin crew remain ready and recurrently train them to give everyone the best possible outcome should such an emergency ever arise.
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Have you ever experienced an inflight emergency? How did the crew respond to it? Don’t hesitate to share your story with us in the comment section underneath this article.