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Air China Will Fire Pilots Who Caused 25,000-Foot Drop by Smoking in Cockpit
The Points Guy ^ | 07/13/18

Posted on 07/13/2018 11:18:22 AM PDT by Simon Green

The captain and first officer of an Air China 737 that plunged 25,000 feet after one of them starting vaping in the cockpit will be fired, the carrier said Friday.

“After an investigation to verify the incident, the decision is to suspend the related crew from flying and terminate the contracts in accordance with the law,” Air China said in a statement. “The crew members who are responsible for the incident have been seriously dealt with.”

The airline has asked the Chinese aviation authority to revoke the pilots’ flying licenses as well.

Flight CA106 was about half an hour out of Hong Kong (HKG) on Tuesday, bound for Dalian, China (DLC), with 162 people aboard a Boeing 737-800 when the copilot allegedly sparked up an e-cigarette, causing the cockpit to fill with fumes. Knowing that the fan in the cockpit ceiling would circulate the odor into the cabin, the copilot tried to turn it off — and ended up turning off an essential component of the air-conditioning system for the entire plane instead. (Smoking by pilots on Chinese airlines is known to happen with a certain frequency, and we have experienced it ourselves.)

According to a captain at a US airline, what probably happened it that a pilot mistakenly switched off one of the air-conditioning “packs,” as they are called technically, while trying to switch off air recirculation in order not to let smoke filter into the cabin. The 737 has two air conditioner systems, one known as the “L pack” and the other as the “R pack.” The on/off switch for the R pack is located very close to the air recirculation switch on an overhead panel, on the ceiling between the pilots’ seats. One of the pilots likely turned off the R-pack while reaching for the switch turning off the recirculation fan.

At the 30,000-plus ft altitude they were flying according to press reports, the single remaining air-conditioning pack would not have been able to maintain the air inside the cabin at the 6,000-foot altitude that makes it possible for people to breathe without oxygen masks. That’s because the a/c packs take air from the engines and pump into the cabin to maintain a comfortable air pressure. With the cabin air rapidly reaching unbreathable levels, oxygen masks deployed automatically and the pilots would have been warned to begin an emergency descent. It’s likely the pilots were still unaware of what had happened, and voluntarily went into a rapid descent as part of an emergency protocol in the belief that the cabin had truly depressurized. The plane dropped to about 10,000 feet.

At the lower altitude, the cockpit crew seem to have figured out the issue and decided to carry on with the flight instead of diverting, arriving at Dalian an hour behind schedule despite the fact that the plane’s emergency oxygen was depleted.

“It is worth noting, that had there been any mechanical problems that resulted in a loss of cabin pressure, or pack malfunction, there is zero reason why the pilots would have returned to 25,000 feet and continued to their destination; instead they would have immediately diverted,” the US captain, who asked not to be named because of his job, said in an email.

There were no reported injuries, and the plane was undamaged.

Air China said it was launching an investigation into how it could have prevented the incident. Smoking, including with e-cigarettes, is banned on Air China flights.


TOPICS: Travel
KEYWORDS: china; smoking; vaping
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1 posted on 07/13/2018 11:18:22 AM PDT by Simon Green
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To: SkyDancer

Ping.


2 posted on 07/13/2018 11:19:31 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: Simon Green

Sum Ting Wong


3 posted on 07/13/2018 11:21:24 AM PDT by DFG
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To: DFG

Wee Tu Lo


4 posted on 07/13/2018 11:23:00 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Simon Green

Vaping isn’t smoking.


5 posted on 07/13/2018 11:26:08 AM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: laplata; Simon Green

Indeed. (Vaping is not smoking) and anyway, why would vaping or smoking be a causal effect of a plane falling 25 thousand ft? What a dumb headline


6 posted on 07/13/2018 11:31:54 AM PDT by atc23
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To: Simon Green

Ho Lee Fuk.

5.56mm


7 posted on 07/13/2018 11:33:17 AM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: Simon Green

8 posted on 07/13/2018 11:33:19 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Simon Green

Did this smoking occur before or after a romp around the cockpit with the stewardesses?


9 posted on 07/13/2018 11:35:00 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Don't pass up the opportunity to use the Second Amendment today! IT'S FREE!)
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To: Simon Green

This seems extreme. It was only a 25K drop. Reminds the passengers to value every second of their lives because it can all end in a firey boom at any moment!


10 posted on 07/13/2018 11:38:29 AM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: dfwgator

11 posted on 07/13/2018 11:40:13 AM PDT by Delta 21 (Build The Wall !! Jail The Cankle !!)
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To: DFG

ROTFLMAO!!!!!


12 posted on 07/13/2018 11:43:17 AM PDT by b4its2late (A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own.)
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To: Simon Green

well, apparently Bang Ding Ow was not on-board


13 posted on 07/13/2018 11:44:55 AM PDT by QualityMan (The Adults are back in town)
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To: Simon Green
Could have been worse...


14 posted on 07/13/2018 11:45:48 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: atc23

I guess reading as far as the 4th paragraph would be dumb too.


15 posted on 07/13/2018 11:55:24 AM PDT by bigbob (Trust Sessions. Trust the Plan.)
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To: atc23

Indeed. (Vaping is not smoking) and anyway, why would vaping or smoking be a causal effect of a plane falling 25 thousand ft? What a dumb headline

><

That’s right. Planes used to be filled with smoke and it didn’t affect anything.

The author must be an anti-smoking Nazi.


16 posted on 07/13/2018 12:03:35 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: DFG

Sum Dum Phuc


17 posted on 07/13/2018 12:05:46 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: atc23

I read the story and now see what happened. I spoke without reading the whole thing.


18 posted on 07/13/2018 12:07:05 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: laplata
I spoke without reading the whole thing.

Shame on you, you know that never happens here. ;)

19 posted on 07/13/2018 12:09:20 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: laplata

“Vaping isn’t smoking”

Your point?


20 posted on 07/13/2018 12:29:52 PM PDT by TexasGator (Z1)
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