A crj-900 diverted to a nearby airport after the flight attendants and the flight crew agreed there ...

Narrative:

Climbing through FL260 a flight attendant called up to say that there was an electrical burning smell. The captain went back to check it out while a flight attendant came into the cockpit with me. He returned a minute later and asked me to go check if I smelled anything. I went back and around row one smelled a distinct electrical burning smell similar to when something short circuits. I returned to the cockpit and advised the captain that I smelled it and felt that we needed to get on the ground. Prior to leaving the cockpit I called up nearest airports on my mfd and saw that we were within a few minutes of several.the captain [advised ATC]; and we initiated a descent and turn back to one of the nearby airports which was VMC. Coming through 10;000 I maintained 300 knots in an effort to get the aircraft safely on the ground in case there was a fire. We ran all of our checklists and made a safe overweight landing on runway xx. As we pulled off the runway the firetrucks met the aircraft but did not observe any fire; so we had them follow us to the gate. Firefighters boarded the plane and concurred that there was a smell of an electrical fire. Maintenance found a fan in the galley/lav area had shorted out and failed; causing the smell.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-900 diverted to a nearby airport after the flight attendants and the flight crew agreed there was a clear electrical burning odor in the front of the passenger cabin. After landing and inspection Maintenance found a failed fan in the galley area that had shorted out; causing the odor.

Narrative: Climbing through FL260 a Flight Attendant called up to say that there was an electrical burning smell. The Captain went back to check it out while a Flight Attendant came into the cockpit with me. He returned a minute later and asked me to go check if I smelled anything. I went back and around row one smelled a distinct electrical burning smell similar to when something short circuits. I returned to the cockpit and advised the Captain that I smelled it and felt that we needed to get on the ground. Prior to leaving the cockpit I called up nearest airports on my MFD and saw that we were within a few minutes of several.The Captain [advised ATC]; and we initiated a descent and turn back to one of the nearby airports which was VMC. Coming through 10;000 I maintained 300 knots in an effort to get the aircraft safely on the ground in case there was a fire. We ran all of our checklists and made a safe overweight landing on RWY XX. As we pulled off the runway the firetrucks met the aircraft but did not observe any fire; so we had them follow us to the gate. Firefighters boarded the plane and concurred that there was a smell of an electrical fire. Maintenance found a fan in the galley/lav area had shorted out and failed; causing the smell.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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	1190515
Time
Date	201407
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 900 (CRJ900)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Aircraft Cooling System
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Speed All Types Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

A crj-900 diverted to a nearby airport after the flight attendants and the flight crew agreed there was a clear electrical burning odor in the front of the passenger cabin. After landing and inspection maintenance found a failed fan in the galley area that had shorted out; causing the odor.