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| Date: | Tuesday 12 June 2001 |
| Time: | 08:36 |
| Type: |  McDonnell Douglas MD-83 |
| Owner/operator: | Transjet Airways |
| Registration: | SE-RBI |
| MSN: | 49402/1261 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1986 |
| Engine model: | P&W JT8D-200 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 154 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor, repaired |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | Manchester Airport (MAN/EGCC) -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Standing |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Manchester International Airport (MAN/EGCC) |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
When the crew arrived at the aircraft to prepare it for departure the commander was informed by maintenance personnel that for some unknown reason one of the two aircraft batteries was discharged and the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) could therefore not be started due to low voltage.
Furthermore there was no ground power unit (GPU) available. Eventually a GPU was provided and when sufficient battery charging had taken place the APU was started and the GPU disconnected.
Some time later during passenger boarding the pilots noticed an unidentifiable odour in the cockpit.
Maintenance staff, located on the ramp, shouted up to the pilots on the flight deck that smoke was emanating from the Electrical and Electronic (E&E) bay compartment door beneath the fuselage.
The commander summoned the purser to the flight deck, informed him of the situation, turned off the battery switch and shutdown the APU. By now smoke was starting to fill the cockpit and there was no power available to communicate with the emergency services or ATC. The main cabin door was blocked by disabled passengers still in the process of boarding; the emergency slides had not yet been armed and only emergency lighting was available (powered by separate dedicated batteries). Precautionary evacuation of the passengers via the rear ventral door however was initiated by use of a loud hailer and all passengers and crew vacated the aircraft in without injury. The smoke was discovered to have been due to the boiling of the batteries , possibly due to their rapid re-charging.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f893e5274a13140006a1/dft_avsafety_pdf_502051.pdf
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/194434 (Photo)
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 09-Mar-2025 08:28 | Justanormalperson | Added |
| 09-Mar-2025 08:29 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, Accident report, ] |
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