An md-82 flight crew declared an emergency diverted to a nearby airport and landed overweight but un...

Narrative:

We had descended from FL320 to FL280 due to turbulence. Upon reaching FL280 an acrid odor briefly presented in cockpit. Shortly thereafter the flight attendants reported an odor in the cabin and advised the passengers were very concerned. We turned off galley power and recirc fans and increased cabin altitude to dissipate the odor; which seemed to help temporarily as the attendants reported that they were not sure if the odor was gone or not. We then decided to divert to a nearby airport and so advised ATC and company operations. While proceeding direct to the airport in the descent the cabin reported the odor was recurring. Maintained as high airspeed as possible consistent with ride conditions to reduce enroute time and deviated from SOP to get the jet on the ground in minimum time. Landed overweight but softly in the touchdown zone.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD-82 flight crew declared an emergency diverted to a nearby airport and landed overweight but uneventfully when acrid odors permeated the cockpit and passenger cabin.

Narrative: We had descended from FL320 to FL280 due to turbulence. Upon reaching FL280 an acrid odor briefly presented in cockpit. Shortly thereafter the flight attendants reported an odor in the cabin and advised the passengers were very concerned. We turned off galley power and recirc fans and increased cabin altitude to dissipate the odor; which seemed to help temporarily as the attendants reported that they were not sure if the odor was gone or not. We then decided to divert to a nearby airport and so advised ATC and company operations. While proceeding direct to the airport in the descent the cabin reported the odor was recurring. Maintained as high airspeed as possible consistent with ride conditions to reduce enroute time and deviated from SOP to get the jet on the ground in minimum time. Landed overweight but softly in the touchdown zone.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1090178
Time
Date	201305
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-82
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

An md-82 flight crew declared an emergency diverted to a nearby airport and landed overweight but uneventfully when acrid odors permeated the cockpit and passenger cabin.