TS715 - Incident: Transat A321 near Washington on Jul 14th 2024

An Air Transat Airbus A321-200, registration C-GEXB performing flight TS-715 from Santa Clara (Cuba) to Montreal,QC (Canada) with 200 people on board, was enroute at FL350 about 200nm south of Washington,DC (USA) when the crew initiated an emergency descent to 10,000 feet levelling off at 10,000 feet about 6 minutes later (average rate of descent 4166 fpm) due to the loss of cabin pressure. The passenger oxygen masks were not released, the flight crew did not don their oxygen masks. The aircraft subsequently diverted to Washington Dulles Airport for a safe landing about 50 minutes after leaving FL350.

The Canadian TSB reported: "After take-off the FCM selected the Packs ON, after a few seconds the crew got an ECAM message AIR PACK 2 Fault. The crew actioned the ECAM and tried to put the pack back on, but the same ECAM reappeared a few minutes later therefore the crew left Pack #2 OFF. In cruise, about 100 NM east-southeast of Raleigh-Durham International Airport (KRDU), NC, during a routine fuel check, the crew verified the PRESS page and noticed that the cabin altitude was high, about 7500 feet and that the cabin was climbing at around 100 feet/min. The crew requested lower, but ATC had to give them vectors to descend the flight. In the meantime, the ADV appeared on the ECAM, and the crew noticed that the inlet, extract and outflow valves were closed. The cabin altitude was now passed 9000 feet therefore the crew commenced an emergency descent while declaring a MAYDAY with Washington ATC. The oxygen masks were not donned by the flight crew members nor deployed in the cabin as the cabin altitude never passed 9300 feet. Once at 10 000 feet ASL the cabin pressurization system was recovered, and the situation downgraded to a PAN PAN. The flight diverted to Dulles International Airport (KIAD), VA."

The aircraft remained on the ground for about 36 hours before positioning to Toronto,ON (Canada) and resuming service.

Related Flight: TS715, Air Transat News