Created Tuesday, Nov 24th 2020 11:40Z, last updated Tuesday, Nov 24th 2020 11:40Z
A Swiss Avro RJ-100, registration HB-IXP performing flight
LX-446 from Geneva (Switzerland) to London City,EN (UK) with 73 passengers and 5 crew, was accelerating for takeoff from runway 05 when the crew rejected takeoff at high speed due to a strong odour of oil appearing in the cockpit. The aircraft slowed safely and returned to the apron.
The flight was cancelled.
The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground for about 63 hours before resuming service.
Switzerland's SUST reported both flight crew received minor injuries by intoxication. An investigation has been opened.
The SUST released their summary report in French only (Editorial note: to serve the purpose of global prevention of the repeat of causes leading to an occurrence an additional timely release of all occurrence reports in the only world spanning aviation language English would be necessary, a French only release does not achieve this purpose as set by ICAO annex 13 and just forces many aviators to waste much more time and effort each in trying to understand the circumstances leading to the occurrence. Aviators operating internationally are required to read/speak English besides their local language, investigators need to be able to read/write/speak English to communicate with their counterparts all around the globe).
The SUST analyses and concludes (in one):
The APU was out of service, the crew therefore used the bleed air from engines #1 (outboard left) and #4 (outboard right) to provide air conditioning on board of the aircraft. The temperature control valve of the oil circuit of the #1 engine was leaking, as the valve is located above the engine's bleed band, the oil such leaked by gravity onto the bleed band from where the oil entered the engine's compressor. The bleed air from the #1 engine had been selected on about 15 minutes prior to takeoff, during taxi at low power the bleed air ducts connecting the #1 engine to the #1 pack became gradually contamined with oil. Upon applying takeoff power the flow of hot and compressed air greatly increased in the already contamined bleed air ducts causing contaminated air to arrive in the cockpit prompting the captain to reject takeoff.
As the temperature control valve (TCV) was clearly identified as cause of the occurrence, the SUST does not continue the investigation further and concludes the report with this summary.
The SUST reported the aircraft taxied to the holding point runway 05 with the APU inoperative, bleed air being supplied by engines #1 and #4 (bleed air valves of engines #2 and #3 were closed). While accelerating through 70 KIAS for takeoff both pilots noticed the smell of burnt oil. The smell increased further prompting the captain to reject takeoff at about 90 KIAS. The aircraft slowed safely and vacated the runway, emergency services responded and escorted the aircraft to the apron. The captain requests the purser to enter the cockpit, the purser confirms the smell of burnt oil has also been detected in the cabin. The engines were shut down normally, the passengers disembarked normally. Medical services entered the cockpit and determined both pilots and the purser had been poisoned by carbon monoxide inhalation. The pilots and purser were taken to a hospital and discharged about 7.5 hours later.
Location of bleed band and temperature control valve (Photo: SUST):
