Created Friday, Aug 19th 2022 17:45Z, last updated Thursday, May 2nd 2024 18:08Z
An Airblue Airbus A321-200N, registration AP-BOE performing flight
PA-412 from Lahore (Pakistan) to Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), was climbing out of Lahore's runway 18R when the crew stopped the climb at about 4000 feet after receiving a rear cargo smoke indication. The aircraft returned to Lahore for a safe landing on runway 36L about 8 minutes after departure.
The aircraft remained on the ground until Aug 3rd 2022 (8 days) before returning to service.
Pakistan's AIB reported on Aug 19th 2022 that the occurrence was rated a serious incident, there were no injuries and the aircraft did not receive any damage.
On May 2nd 2024 Pakistan's CAA released the AAIB's final report concluding the probable causes of the serious incident were:
Animal meat loaded on aircraft was not adequately packed. It generated humidity which augmented the prevailing high humidity level in the sealed AFT Cargo Compartment leading to in-flight spurious smoke warning.
The AAIB analysed:
After this serious incident, inspection of the AFT Cargo Compartment did not reveal sign of actual smoke or fire. In-flight warning message of ‘SMOKE AFT CARGO SMOKE’ was a spurious warning message.
It was found during the inspection that 3,200 kg of frozen animal meat was loaded in the AFT Cargo Compartment.
Animal meat was packed in fabric bags and traces of fluid / blood were found on these bags. It indicated inadequate packing / sealing of the bags containing the animal meat.
...
Animal meat contained in inadequate packing could have generated the humidity, thus increasing the humidity level in the sealed Cargo Compartment. This situation combined with the high relative humidity level at the Aerodrome could have led to condensation, the droplets of which appeared to Smoke Detector as smoke particles, leading to spurious smoke warning after take-off.
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