Spilling a drink in the cockpit of an Airbus A350 might be a quick and easy way to have your flight diverted ,or returned to its origin, after two separate spillage incidents lead to un-commanded engine shut downs.
Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Leonardo are in the process of investigating two incidents that occurred in November 2019 and January 2020, that involve a Delta Air Lines A350 and an aircraft from an undisclosed airline.
FlightGlobal reports that a Delta Air Lines A350-900, on its way to Seoul, diverted to Fairbanks on the 21st of January, after its right hand Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 engine shut down. Attempts were made to restart the engine, however they were unsuccessful.
An investigation found that 15 minutes prior to the shut down, a drink was spilled on the centre pedestal where the engine start controls and electronic centralised aircraft monitor functions (ECAM) are located.
System data showed that the electronic engine control was responsible for the closure of a high-pressure shut-off valve, after conflicting information was outputted by the integrated control panel.
The other incident involved tea being spilled on the centre pedestal, before the right-hand Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine shut down. Although the airline hasn’t been identified, FlightGlobal reports that an Asiana Airlines Airbus A350-900 diverted to Manila on the 9th of November 2019 after encountering engine issues.
Engine restarts were attempted, however the engine remained unresponsive until after the aircraft had touched down; where it was able to be powered on and operated. Just like the Delta incident, system data showed an un-commanded closure of a high-pressure shut-off valve.
Since the occurrence of these two incidents, the integrated control panel and electronic engine controls on the incident aircraft have been replaced. The affected systems are now being assessed to determine the cause and develop a fix.
Although the shut downs came after the drinks were spilled, the root cause is yet to be determined and no official guidelines have been presented by aviation safety authorities.
Airbus held a discussion with A350 operators on the 30th of January, which supposedly included information on the safe handling and transfer of beverages in the cockpit.
What are your thoughts on this finding?
This shouldn’t need regulation – IT IS COMMON SENSE – we all know that liquids and electronics are not HAPPY BEDFELLOWS. I bet we all know, maybe yourself, of people that have ruined laptops, keyboards and mobile phones due to liquids being spilled.
Sippy cups…infants use the all the time, nothing spills. Cost $0.87 each’n
Please, can someone tell me what might happen if coffee was spilled on a flight from Johannesburg to Singapore. Say between Mauritius and Indonesia?
The movie is Fate Is The Hunter, 1964 with Rod Taylor, Glen Ford. Same exact senerio.
I was disappointed that no news reports I read about these incidents mentioned “Fate Is the Hunter”! I actually logged on here to see if anyone brought it up. Thanks for restoring my faith, Jack!
As for the scenario in the movie, if you recall, the plane experienced a bird strike, disabling one of the engines. They discover in the recreation of the flight that the spilled coffee shorted some wires, erroneously alerting the crew that the second engine had failed (when it hadn’t). Poor Suzanne Pleshette just couldn’t catch a break in the early ’60s when it came to things that fly.
I remember as a kid that there was a movie on this same topic. The plane actually crashed in that movie and the whole movie was on trying to recreate it. The movie came out in the early 60s. It was found that as I recall, coffee was spilled. You would think that almost 60 years since that movie, they would have corrected that flaw.