Narrative:

Crew noted mfd screen blank. Less than 30 seconds later; pm (pilot monitoring) in right seat reported increasing heat felt on his legs. Both pilots noted light; acrid odor but no smoke. Pm advised ATC; and reported initiation of emergency descent. PF (pilot flying) turned off the avionics switch; and turned the battery switch to emer. Acrid odor dissipated. Pm reported heat dissipated. Pm coordinated with ATC to find the nearest suitable field for landing. Crew agreed on the second nearest field to position when initiating emergency descent as it had a runway of suitable length and time to descend (40000 ft) was the determining factor for landing in this case. Pm ran appropriate checklists and made the excellent recommendation to return the battery switch to on from emer to restore anti-skid before landing. This disabled comms; but was done on short final after making appropriate unicom announcements and determining that there was no other airport traffic. PF taxied in to parking with no further indication of electrical shorting.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CE-560 Captain reports noting his MFD screen blank and a few moments later reports increasing heat on his legs and an acrid smell. The avionics switch is turned off and an emergency descent is initiated for diversion to the nearest suitable airport. The smell and the heat dissipate during the descent.

Narrative: Crew noted MFD screen blank. Less than 30 seconds later; PM (Pilot Monitoring) in right seat reported increasing heat felt on his legs. Both pilots noted light; acrid odor but no smoke. PM advised ATC; and reported initiation of emergency descent. PF (Pilot Flying) turned off the avionics switch; and turned the battery switch to Emer. Acrid odor dissipated. PM reported heat dissipated. PM coordinated with ATC to find the nearest suitable field for landing. Crew agreed on the second nearest field to position when initiating emergency descent as it had a runway of suitable length and time to descend (40000 ft) was the determining factor for landing in this case. PM ran appropriate checklists and made the excellent recommendation to return the battery switch to ON from Emer to restore anti-skid before landing. This disabled comms; but was done on short final after making appropriate Unicom announcements and determining that there was no other airport traffic. PF taxied in to parking with no further indication of electrical shorting.

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.