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Condor, Smell of Smoke in Cockpit

The Aviation Herald

A Condor Boeing 767-300, registration D-ABUK performing flight DE-2064 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Las Vegas,NV (USA), was enroute at FL330 about 340nm north of Sondrestrom, Kangerlussuaq (Greenland) when the crew decided to divert to Sondrestrom due to smoke in the forward cabin. The aircraft descended to FL280 for the diversion and landed safely in Sondrestrom about one hour after leaving FL330. A replacement Boeing 767-300 registration D-ABUA was dispatched from Frankfurt to Sondrestrom, resumed the flight and delivered the passengers to Las Vegas with a delay of 16 hours. The occurrence aircraft departed Sondrestrom about 30.5 hours after landing to position back to Frankfurt, but needed to divert to Newcastle,EN (UK) reporting smoke in the cockpit while enroute at FL350 over the North Sea about 150nm northeast of Newcastle. The aircraft landed safely on Newcastle's runway 07 about 35 minutes later. Following landing in Newcastle the aircraft remained on the ground in Newcastle for about 59.5 hours, then positioned back to Frankfurt/Main (Germany). The aircraft is still on the ground 7.5 hours after landing in Frankfurt. On Aug 24th 2017 the Danish HCL reported that the occurrence has been rated a serious incident and is being investigated. While enroute at FL330 over Greenland the first officer noticed a strange smell like burning rubber from the right hand side of the cockpit. The odour slowly intensified and seemed to originate from the air outlet on the first officer's instrument panel. A cabin crew member was called to the cockpit and detected the odour, too, which was not present in the cabin. The flight crew consulted with maintenance over satellite phone. The odour intensified further, the crew therefore worked the checklist "Smoke, Fire or Fumes". About 30 minutes after the odour was detected the crew declared PAN and decided to divert to Sondrestrom about 330nm south of their present position. During the descent the crew donned their oxygen masks, completed the checklist and landed the aircraft safely. Emergency services checked the cabin and cockpit, subsequently commander and emergency services checked the avionics bay with no trace of fire, heat or smoke, the odour was noticeable only in the cockpit. A maintenance team was dispatched to Sondrestrom, examined the aircraft but could not find any technical issue with the aircraft, however, found some food residues left in a forward galley oven, which they concluded was the source of the smell.

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