Lakelad Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 . 'Vaping' pilot caused Air China plane to plunge 6,500m Fri 13 July, 2018 - BBC News A co-pilot smoking an e-cigarette on an Air China flight caused the plane to start a rapid emergency descent, investigators have said. They say he tried to hide the fact that he was smoking but accidentally shut off the air-conditioning, causing oxygen levels to fall. The crew on Tuesday's flight from Hong Kong to the city of Dalian released oxygen masks and brought the plane more than 6,500m (21,000ft) lower. It later returned to cruising altitude. An initial probe by China's Civil Aviation Administration in China has shown that the co-pilot tried to turn off a fan to stop smoke reaching the passenger cabin without telling the captain, but turned off the air-conditioning unit instead. Passengers say they were told to fasten their seat belts as the plane had to descend. The regulator's safety officer Qiao Yibin said the crew had to perform emergency measures, dropping oxygen masks until they could figure out the problem. If a plane loses cabin pressure, the pilot has to bring the aircraft to a lower altitude to keep crew and passengers safe. Once they saw that the air conditioning had been turned off, they reactivated it and brought the flight back to its normal altitude. Authorities are reportedly investigating the cause "in greater detail", examining both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder to determine precisely what caused the incident. The airline promised a "zero-tolerance" approach to crew misbehaviour on Chinese social media site Weibo. Chinese flight regulations prohibit all flight crew from smoking, and banned passengers from using e-cigarettes on board in 2006. But there have been accusations of pilots smoking on board other Chinese flights, including in 2015 when the state-run radio spoke to passengers on a Hong Kong-Beijing flight who claimed to smell strong smoke coming from the cockpit. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blues deville Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 There’s a reason you can see streaks from the pilot’s side windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 1 hour ago, blues deville said: There’s a reason you can see streaks from the pilot’s side windows. At my age I'm lucky if I can read the name of the airline in that photo......is that a real plane or just a model on your desk ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blues deville Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 12 hours ago, Kip Powick said: At my age I'm lucky if I can read the name of the airline in that photo......is that a real plane or just a model on your desk ?? Here’s a better photo. No streaks from the pilot side window but looks like they do take smoke breaks in the crew rest area behind the flightdeck. Or someone keeps burning the toast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conehead Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 Blues, I think those streaks aft of the door are from excess lubricant on the door seal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boestar Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Back in the days when smoking was allowed the streaks were far more defined than that. it was an easy task to locate pressure leaks. The outflow valves had to be cleaned regularily back then too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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