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    Passengers Treated For Heat Problems At Charlotte-Douglas Airport



    CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Medic treated several passengers with heat-related problems aboard a sweltering US Airways flight to Philadelphia that returned to Charlotte-Douglas Airport on Friday afternoon.
    It was the second time on Friday that 196 passengers had to be taken off the same plane because the air conditioner did not work.
    "They said it was 114 degrees or something. It was very hot! I was just sweating up there," said Aiden Deleon, 9, who was taking his first trip on a plane.
    Passengers boarded the plane at Charlotte-Douglas Airport about noon on Friday but were told to get off so the air conditioning system could be fixed.
    Two-and-a-half hours later, they were back on the plane. Some passengers said that was a mistake.
    "The plane was just as hot, if not hotter, than when we got off several hours before," Tom Kern said.
    Passengers said the scene onboard the plane was chaotic after takeoff. They said the flight attendants were visibly frazzled, and several passengers had panic attacks.
    "A man in a wheelchair passed out, and a baby. So we had to turn around come back here," said Beverly Johnson.
    Medic treated several passengers for heat-related illnesses, and one person had to be transported to the hospital.
    Channel 9 Eyewitness News asked US Airways why the plane took off in the first place.
    A spokeswoman said, "We thought we had fixed the issue. It's normal for it to be a little hotter on board if the plane's on the ground. But clearly the issue wasn't fixed so we turned the fight around."
    US Airways finally canceled the flight Friday evening and told passengers they would leave on a flight Saturday morning.
    Copyright 2010 by WSOCTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • #2
    bullshit. air conditioning either works or it doesn't. they "thought they fixed it???" my guess is they took of knowing it was still not working and only turned around because two people passed out.

    classic money grubbing...

    Comment


    • #3
      TeeVee,

      Thats not true at all.

      "Air Conditioning" on an aircraft isn't turn on or off, its part of the pressurisation system. Its effectiveness on the ground is minimal unless you sit at the gate with both engines running for a significant period.

      However, once airborne, the system becomes far more effective and the temperature drops significantly within about the first 30 mins.

      I have been on aircraft plenty of times where the airconditioning on the ground is of marginal effectiveness, and by the time you takeoff it is quite hot in the cabin. The fastest way to cool it down is to get airborne.

      Now, its possible the system didn't work as commanded once they took off (yes, systems have a habit of being ground checked as serviceable then breaking again), or given the passengers were feinting they decided to return even though it was working.

      You can't depart with the "aircon" not working. Its not permissable under the Minimum Equipment List.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by juan23 View Post
        Passengers Treated For Heat Problems At Charlotte-Douglas Airport



        CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Medic treated several passengers with heat-related problems aboard a sweltering US Airways flight to Philadelphia that returned to Charlotte-Douglas Airport on Friday afternoon.
        It was the second time on Friday that 196 passengers had to be taken off the same plane because the air conditioner did not work.
        "They said it was 114 degrees or something. It was very hot! I was just sweating up there," said Aiden Deleon, 9, who was taking his first trip on a plane.
        Passengers boarded the plane at Charlotte-Douglas Airport about noon on Friday but were told to get off so the air conditioning system could be fixed.
        Two-and-a-half hours later, they were back on the plane. Some passengers said that was a mistake.
        "The plane was just as hot, if not hotter, than when we got off several hours before," Tom Kern said.
        Passengers said the scene onboard the plane was chaotic after takeoff. They said the flight attendants were visibly frazzled, and several passengers had panic attacks.
        "A man in a wheelchair passed out, and a baby. So we had to turn around come back here," said Beverly Johnson.
        Medic treated several passengers for heat-related illnesses, and one person had to be transported to the hospital.
        Channel 9 Eyewitness News asked US Airways why the plane took off in the first place.
        A spokeswoman said, "We thought we had fixed the issue. It's normal for it to be a little hotter on board if the plane's on the ground. But clearly the issue wasn't fixed so we turned the fight around."
        US Airways finally canceled the flight Friday evening and told passengers they would leave on a flight Saturday morning.
        Copyright 2010 by WSOCTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
        Do you even read copyrights?

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by MCM View Post
          You can't depart with the "aircon" not working. Its not permissable under the Minimum Equipment List.
          True. And if you decide to depart anyway, the FAA will write your airline an angry letter saying "Hey Bill, you really can't be doing that. And thanks again for the skybox tickets."

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by MCM View Post
            You can't depart with the "aircon" not working. Its not permissable under the Minimum Equipment List.
            Gonna' have to disagree with you there Partner.

            Now obviously MELs can vary from airline to airline, so I don't want to make any sweeping statements. However, certainly you can MEL one of the two Packs on a twin engine bird normally with a FL250 restriction. While not an everyday occurence, dispatch under this MEL is fairly common, and I've had single pack ops where it's tough to cool things.....I've also had single pack ops where the remaining pack struggles to maintain pressure at 250.

            However, in the back of my mind I seemed to recall that the MEL allows unpressurized ops (i.e. no packs). Sure enough, a quick peek at the MEL shows 21-00-01B as 2 packs installed/ 0 required. Now I only checked a couple of our fleets as it takes forever to download each MEL, but each plane I checked had that MEL. I can't imagine a situation where you would actaully do it except some extreme IROP, but theoretically, it's allowed.
            Parlour Talker Extraordinaire

            Comment


            • #7
              Irop?

              --- Judge what is said by the merits of what is said, not by the credentials of who said it. ---
              --- Defend what you say with arguments, not by imposing your credentials ---

              Comment


              • #8
                IROPs in the airline world stands for Irregular Operations. It's a catch-all phrase that describes anything that causes the System/Schedule to go outside of normal parameters. Could be Weather, Mechanicals, Emergency diversions, Crew issues whatever.
                Parlour Talker Extraordinaire

                Comment


                • #9
                  Hr 915 rfs

                  Forget the MEL, what about the law?

                  SEC. 819. CABIN TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY STANDARDS STUDY.
                  (a) STUDY.—Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall conduct a study to determine whether onboard temperature standards are necessary to protect cabin and cockpit crew members and passengers on an aircraft of an air carrier used to provide air transportation from excessive heat and humidity on board such aircraft during standard operations or during an excessive flight delay.

                  If it passed the Senate, this study is due to report findings by Sept 23rd.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    G'day VNAV,

                    I'd hardly say dispatching with one pack inop is departing with no aircon. Yes it is slower to cool it down, and of course its possible that was part of the problem here.

                    Unrelated but our MEL doesn't allow two pack inop dispatch, and even the one pack inop MEL goes to lengths to explain if the operative pack fails there is significant temperature and humidity issues, and the QRH required landing at the nearest airport. Thats in a twin, but not a 73.

                    There are ways we could accept it for an empty ferry if required, but I can't imagine ever trying it with passengers except in an emergency.

                    Out of random interest Evan my airline has cabin temperature guidelines, above which we don't board passengers. I've sat on the gate for an hour with engines running trying to cool the cabin to an acceptable level on occasions. It still feels hot, but at least its comfortable within about 30mins of cruise. I guess thats the "full service" difference .

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by MCM View Post
                      Out of random interest Evan my airline has cabin temperature guidelines, above which we don't board passengers. I've sat on the gate for an hour with engines running trying to cool the cabin to an acceptable level on occasions. It still feels hot, but at least its comfortable within about 30mins of cruise. I guess thats the "full service" difference .
                      Aren't there ground units for that purpose?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        There are - how effective they are is another matter entirely.

                        If the cabin starts cool, then the aircon carts will usually prevent it getting unacceptably hot. However if the cabin is already hot, most of them don't have the "oomph" required to really make inroads.

                        It also depends on the airline/airport having one .

                        There is a difference between aircon carts and air start carts... most places have the latter (to facilitate start for a faulty APU), but many won't have the former.

                        This of course doesn't include places like Singapore where the facility is built for the hot and humid conditions and things like this are taken care of.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by MCM View Post
                          TeeVee,
                          "Air Conditioning" on an aircraft isn't turn on or off, its part of the pressurisation system. Its effectiveness on the ground is minimal unless you sit at the gate with both engines running for a significant period.
                          Is the limitation power or the ability to get rid of the heat?

                          You can't depart with the "aircon" not working. Its not permissable under the Minimum Equipment List.
                          I though it was possible to fly unpressurised...

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by MCM View Post
                            TeeVee,

                            Thats not true at all.

                            "Air Conditioning" on an aircraft isn't turn on or off, its part of the pressurisation system. Its effectiveness on the ground is minimal unless you sit at the gate with both engines running for a significant period.

                            However, once airborne, the system becomes far more effective and the temperature drops significantly within about the first 30 mins.

                            I have been on aircraft plenty of times where the airconditioning on the ground is of marginal effectiveness, and by the time you takeoff it is quite hot in the cabin. The fastest way to cool it down is to get airborne.

                            Now, its possible the system didn't work as commanded once they took off (yes, systems have a habit of being ground checked as serviceable then breaking again), or given the passengers were feinting they decided to return even though it was working.

                            You can't depart with the "aircon" not working. Its not permissable under the Minimum Equipment List.

                            Hi MCM, i will of course acquiesce to your knowledge but i must question first. are you telling me that there are no compressors in an aircraft ac system? that the ac system is the system that pressurizes the aircraft? i find that quite impossible to believe as i know there are thermostats on commercial jets. all one has to do is complain a bit and the temperature magically changes.

                            i suspect that since there was no talk about loss of pressurization onboard, that it was the ac compressors that failed not the system that pumps air into the cabin which air can be temperature regulated (yeah, i'm a layman, so excuse my terminology).

                            i've flown many a time with faulty cabin temperature equipment, sometimes not enuf heat, sometimes not enuf cool. uncomfortable.

                            i would bet that a/c left the gate with non-functioning ac.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              The compressors in an aircraft AC system are the engines! Which are part of the system that pump air into the cabin.
                              Aircraft use an ACM..(air cycle machine) I think you are thinking of a freon system..... there is no freon.
                              The PACS were working just not cooling which would be a fault of the temp control or 35 degree valves.
                              Also on the ground the cabin can be cooled by an AC cart, or by an Air Start cart feeding air to the PACS

                              Comment

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