Leaking oil pipe spewed fumes into cockpit and cabin of plane

A leak in an oil supply pipe caused fumes to enter the cockpit and cabin of a London-bound passenger flight, which was forced to return to Dublin Airport for an emergency landing, a report into last year’s incident has found.

The Air Accident Investigation report into the Cityjet flight, with four crew and 48 passengers, found that the pipe leak in the number four engine is likely to have caused oil contamination of the bleed air supply used for air conditioning.

The report states that the flight crew noticed fumes and smoke entering the cockpit shortly after departure from Dublin Airport on the morning of May 22, 2014.

Fumes and smoke were also reported in the passenger cabin. The flight crew donned their oxygen masks and smoke goggles, which in turn necessitated the cabin crew making a public address announcement to the passengers.

The flight crew issued a Pan distress call, which indicates a state of urgency unlike a May Day call, which warns of a more serious emergency.

Air traffic control ordered another aircraft to break off its approach to runway 28 at Dublin Airport to facilitate the stricken flight’s landing, while a number of other flights were moved to holding patterns.

The report found that the flight crew carried out the appropriate emergency checklist actions before landing safely back at Dublin Airport, by which time the smoke had dissipated.

An inspection of the aircraft discovered oil around a drain in the number four engine.

The investigators reported that “it is probable that the bleed air supplied to the air conditioning packs was contaminated by oil leaking from the pipe, which in turn led to the smoke and fumes entering the cockpit and cabin.”