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| Date: | Monday 15 July 2013 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Fokker 100 |
| Owner/operator: | Helvetic Airways |
| Registration: | HB-JVH |
| MSN: | 11324 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1993 |
| Engine model: | Rolls-Royce Tay |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 71 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Serious incident |
| Location: | 15 NM south of Basel -
 Switzerland
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Zürich-Kloten Airport (ZRH/LSZH) |
| Bristol Airport (BRS/EGGD) | |
| Investigating agency: | STSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
At 06:23 UTC, the Fokker 100, registration HB-JVH, took off from runway 28 in Zurich (LSZH) on a scheduled flight to Bristol (EGGD). While climbing, just after the oven used to heat food had been turned on, the senior cabin attendant (SCA), who was working in the galley towards the front of the aircraft, discovered smoke coming from oven no. 2. When he opened the door of the affected oven he was confronted by a cloud of smoke. He then turned this oven and all other galley equipment off.
At the same time the flight crew had noted that white smoke was entering the right side of the cockpit from the rear. The SCA was then instructed by the flight crew to pull the oven circuit breaker (CB). This interrupted the power supply to the oven and smoke generation ceased.
The flight crew then informed air traffic control that they would fly back to Zurich.
The aircraft landed on runway 16 in Zurich at 07:00 UTC. The flight crew decided to let passengers disembark normally since no further smoke was visible.
No occupants were injured. An oven on board the aircraft was damaged. There was no other damage.
Causes
The serious incident is attributable to smoke generation during the flight. This was due to the fact that an exposed heating element came into contact with a plastic film in an oven.
The following factors were identified as the direct cause:
A plastic film was mistakenly left in the oven.
The oven was switched on with an inappropriate tray rack without a rear panel.
The following factor was identified as the systemic cause:
The persons concerned were not aware that two oven types requiring different tray racks were in use.
Although the following factor did not directly cause the serious incident, in the context of the investigation it was identified as a risk factor:
The principles for combating smoke generation or a fire in the oven were not followed.
The flight crew and the fire brigade were only able to communicate by calling because they were not on a common radio frequency.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 24 May 2012 | HB-JVH | Helvetic Airways | 0 | Bern-Belp control zone | |
non |
| Near miss | ||||||
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 31-Aug-2015 16:18 | harro | Added |
| 01-Sep-2015 19:17 | harro | Updated [Date, ] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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