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Qantas 737 captain and first officer ‘incapacitated’ in mayday incident
Both the captain and first officer of a Qantas Freight 737 were left temporarily “incapacitated” after ingesting “gaseous oxygen” in a mayday incident in 2018. An ATSB report reveals the captain was left “gagging” and “gasping for air” on the Express Freighters Australia aircraft travelling between Brisbane to Melbourne. The first officer then subsequently suffered “incapacitating symptoms consistent with hyperventilation”. (australianaviation.com.au) Mais...
Seems like the two pilots handled this per the book for the event, especially mutually confirming with each other about feeling ill.
--- As the flight progressed towards Narrandera, the crew identified that the cabin pressure was reducing, commenting to each other that they both felt slightly unwell. As the cabin altitude continued to climb and anticipating that it would exceed 10,000 feet, the crew elected to don the emergency oxygen masks and advised air traffic control that they had commenced a descent.
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and think this part interesting about how aircraft in question had issue(s):
Separately, the aircraft was inspected by maintenance personnel.
--- “Maintenance engineers identified a range of serviceability issues with the aircraft fuselage cabin drain valves, fuselage door seal, and the auxiliary power unit duct bellow seal that affected the capacity for the aircraft to hold cabin pressure,” Macleod said. ---
--- As the flight progressed towards Narrandera, the crew identified that the cabin pressure was reducing, commenting to each other that they both felt slightly unwell. As the cabin altitude continued to climb and anticipating that it would exceed 10,000 feet, the crew elected to don the emergency oxygen masks and advised air traffic control that they had commenced a descent.
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and think this part interesting about how aircraft in question had issue(s):
Separately, the aircraft was inspected by maintenance personnel.
--- “Maintenance engineers identified a range of serviceability issues with the aircraft fuselage cabin drain valves, fuselage door seal, and the auxiliary power unit duct bellow seal that affected the capacity for the aircraft to hold cabin pressure,” Macleod said. ---
You might conclude that the outflow valve position would be almost closed given the amount of cabin air leakage present? Also if the cabin had trouble maintaining pressure it must have had a really tough time doing it on one pac? Sounds like the crew had never donned the O2 masks on 100% pressure demand before, at least for any length of time? Wonder how well the pressurization system worked in a flight idle descent………Captain, ”my ears popped,”
