Odd smell on plane brings out emergency services
(CNS): What was described as “an unusual odor in the cabin” by the country’s national airline but described by passengers as a burning smell brought out the emergency services, on Wednesday, at Owen Roberts International Airport. As Cayman Airways flight KX113 bound for Grand Cayman from Miami, Florida was cruising home on 5 January the odor was detected in the cabin but no abnormalities were indicated in the cockpit. However, as a precautionary measure, Cayman Airways Chief Pilot, Captain Gary Hydes who was in command of the flight, elected to begin an early decent into Grand Cayman.
“On final approach into Grand Cayman, Captain Hydes informed Air Traffic Control of the odor and as a precaution, requested for emergency services to be on standby. The aircraft landed safely at Owen Roberts International Airport without incident, and a normal deplaning process was completed on arrival,” a spokesperson for Cayman airways revealed.
Maintenance inspections on the ground in Grand Cayman found that one of several ventilation fans (provided for system redundancy) had developed a defect in flight, resulting in the unusual odor. The defective ventilation fan was removed and replaced, and the aircraft was returned to service with minimal delays to the day’s scheduled operations.
“Cayman Airways would like to assure everyone that the nature of the defect, while creating an unusual odor, did not impact the safety of the flight,” said CEO Fabian Whorms.
“We at Cayman Airways hold the safety and security of our passengers as our highest priority and, as such, we commend Captain Hydes and his flight crew for their precautionary measures and the professional manner in which they addressed the situation. We would also like to thank all concerned for their understanding and apologize for any inconvenience that may have been experienced by our valued passengers,” he added.
Category: Headline News
How come there is no mention of the serious incident which occured on board a Cayman Airways return charter from Nicaragua on 5th January 2011. A flock of birds flew in front of the plane during take off and the plane had to abort the landing as one of the engines ingested a bird/birds.
Added to that the plane ended up where a Spirit Airlines plane was attempting to land. The Spirit Airlines plane had pull up to avoid landing in the path of the Cayman Airways plane. Talking to those on board, they all thought that it was the end. Thankfully the skills of the Cayman Airways pilots got them safely back on the ground where they were met by crews of firetrucks and ambulances. Lady luck or God, depending on whom you talk to was watching over everyone that day as no one was injured.
Don’t you think this situation was more serious than an odd smell?
Ask the passengers who were on board the plane and remember the US Airways "miracle" flight over the Hudson River that hit a flock of geese???
Bird strikes on Cayman Airways planes seem to happen very frequently. Recently there was a Bird strike in Tampa on takeoff and the flight returned safely. This problem seems to happen everywhere and not only to Cayman Airways although it seems you only hear about it when Cayman Airways is affected or in the case of the US Airways flight because it ended up in the Hudson River.
In the case of the odor incident, that happens less frequently and therefore seems to get more attention. In either case, these things do happen and are usually not as alarming as some would want it to be. These incidents are inevitable and the Pilots are highly trained to deal with them whenever they occur. Environmentalists say the Birds must be free to fly whereever they wish, unfortunatelythis includes the flight path of aircraft. Jet engines do not have any form of protective cover and Birds cannot be controlled by air traffic controllers, therefore whenever Birds and aircraft meet in flight, birds will get ingested in to the engines.
What an absolutely ridiculous statement.
"A flock of birds flew in front of the plane during take off and the plane had to abort the landing as one of the engines ingested a bird/birds."
"Added to that the plane ended up where a Spirit Airlines plane was attempting to land. The Spirit Airlines plane had pull up to avoid landing in the path of the Cayman Airways plane. Talking to those on board, they all thought that it was the end. Thankfully the skills of the Cayman Airways pilots got them safely back on the ground where they were met by crews of firetrucks and ambulances. Lady luck or God, depending on whom you talk to was watching over everyone that day as no one was injured."
Your facts are so far from the truth.
Firstly, Spirit Airlines arrived after Cayman Airways HAD ALREADY LANDED.
Secondly, Spirit departed before we were ready to depart.
There was an aborted take-off due to heavy bird concentration across the runway. But there was never a birdstrike, nor ingestion of birds in the engines. The airplane NEVER became airbourne.
Once returning to the gate, the fire service dispatched at truck as a measure of precaution, as with very hot brakes, one keeps an eye out for fire. There were no ambulances waiting for us, nor were non required.
I was on the flight with two family members, and we were thankful to know that we landed safe, no panic was shown by the crew. Capt Hydes you did a very good job in keeping your passengers calm, and your words of assurance were a comfort – God bless you on your continued flights.
well, we can rule out hot air outta the big mac as he dont roll on CA, he only flys pjs now.
truth hurts. Like it or lump it. Big Mac is flying pjs now and demonstrating to those who made him Premier that he is loving every minute of his job. Too bad if it hurts but it is the truth.
I thought it was the ram goat liver they served. That’ll give you a runny belly like a judgment day…
Thanks Nick J.
You thumbs-down folks don’t listen to a lot of Caribbean music, do you? The reference is to a great song by Pluto Shervington, and the posting appears to be in humour. Have a listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kca32orFys
Better be safe than sorry…Good job Capt. Haynes!
Capt Hydes**
I was on that flight. Something was definitely burning.
How can you make an early descent into Cayman? It is a small island in a huge ocean.
At 35,000 feet in the air if a fire starts it will eat up oxygen very fast. The Captain was very smart . He knew that if something went wrong and the air craft was at a lower altitude he had a better chance of ditching the plane and a very good chance that more people would live. Remember the pilot tha t ditch his plane into Hudson River in New York ? Everyone went home to their loved ones. Do your home work before you make a wise crack. The pilot had one thing in mind and that was to get you and the rest of the passingers on the ground safely.
An early descent can be made at any point. Does it matter if its an island or a continent? The plane does not fly in the ocean if it is flying to an island, and it does not fly on the ground if it is flying over a continent. Making an early descent simply means that they made the descent to a lower flight level before the initial plan of descent. This is done for safety reasons, because of the possibility of a fire, you want to be closer to the ground in the case an emergency landing or controlled crash needs to be made. If the plane caught on fire, would you prefer to be 30,000ft in the air, or would 10,000ft be a better option for you? In instances of fire, the closer you are to the surface, the chance to de-board and possibility of survival will increase, especially if the airplane is in controlled flight. In cases such as loss of thrust or engine power, the more altitude you have increases chances of survival, as there is more time make decisions and land as safely as possible, considering that the plane has no structural damage that would render it uncontrollable in flight. In power out situations, airplanes can still be flown safely by maintain airspeed by controlled decent.
A ventilation fan burned out. That explains the smell of burning, and if you have ever smelled a burning electric motor that is an awful smell.
Captain Gary Hydes is a Professional Aviator with many years of flying under his belt. If he chose to do an early descent, he did so in the best interest of his passengers and crew and all praise must go to him for a job well done.
No doubt for Captain Hydes this incident was just another of many he has experienced over the years and you can bet he was back to doing what he does extremely well very soon after.
For inexperienced passengers this could be frightening. I recall the same thing happening on an Air Jamaica flight many years ago and although I had a lot of flying experience I was really concerned. The Pilot turned the aircraft around and headed back to Kingston at a low altitude where we arrived safely, had the problem fixed and was back on our way in about two hours.