Created Tuesday, Feb 16th 2021 00:18Z, last updated Thursday, Feb 18th 2021 20:26Z
A Lufthansa Airbus A350-900, registration D-AIXJ performing flight
LH-413 from Newark,NJ (USA) to Munich (Germany) with 41 people on board, was climbing to FL350 just about to reach the flight level about 10nm south of Boston,MA (USA) when the crew advised they had some smell in the back of the cabin and would like to maintain minimum speed (0.73 mach) to solve the smell issue. A few minutes later, about 25nm east of Boston, the crew advised they still had the smell in the cabin and decided to not continue their flight to destination but to return to Newark. They expected a normal landing, then requested to speed up the arrival in Newark so that they were able to get the passengers off at the gate as quickly as possible. Two passengers reported they felt headaches, cabin crew reported the smell was like tigerbalsam, not like smoke, something different to smoke. The crew again requested to make sure they had a gate to arrive there as quickly as possible and de-board the passengers. The aircraft landed safely on Newark's runway 22R about 80 minutes after departure and taxied to the gate.
The aircraft remained on the ground in Newark until Feb 9th 2021, then departed for Munich again as flight
LH-413.
On Feb 18th 2021 The Aviation Herald learned that the odour of Tiger Balm was first noticed about 15 minutes into the flight and continued to intensify. The passengers disembarked normally after the return to Newark. A congested water drain in the aft galley produced an unpleasant odour, in addition a good number of wipes with disinfectants were found in the waste trolley. The drain was cleaned, the wipes removed and the aircraft subsequently operated without further odour.
Related Flight:
LH413,
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