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An ATR-72 flight crew diverted after they smelled fuel in flight and found a leaking 5 gallon hazmat container.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 838523 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200906 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1801-2400 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.ARTCC |
| State Reference | FO |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Night |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | ATR 72 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor |
Narrative:
We were close to the boundary with ATC when we started smelling fuel. The monitoring pilot went back to zone 2 and found a 5 gallon hazmat drum leaking fuel on top of the drum; and a strong smell of fuel. At that time we decided to declare an emergency with teh next controller rather than the one we were talking to since the leak at the time did not appear that big and the smell was not affecting us. The reason for this was to be able to go to the most suitable airport taking in consideration that they have a good facility there. We planned that if the situation would get worse we could go to at least 3 more airports in the area. We landed with no more incidents. One thing I will like to point out is that while we were on approach; ATC delayed our landing; even though we declare an emergency; to put another aircraft in front of us and on one and a half mile final they were still in the runway and we almost have to go-around. This event probably occurred because of mis-packaging or mis-handling of hazmat. I would like to point out that the only thing we can improve is to put some type of check list to handle this type of situation; or maybe do some research to see if depressurizing the aircraft could help with the fumes.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: An ATR-72 flight crew diverted after they smelled fuel in flight and found a leaking 5 gallon HAZMAT container.
Narrative: We were close to the boundary with ATC when we started smelling fuel. The monitoring pilot went back to zone 2 and found a 5 gallon HAZMAT drum leaking fuel on top of the drum; and a strong smell of fuel. At that time we decided to declare an emergency with teh next controller rather than the one we were talking to since the leak at the time did not appear that big and the smell was not affecting us. The reason for this was to be able to go to the most suitable airport taking in consideration that they have a good facility there. We planned that if the situation would get worse we could go to at least 3 more airports in the area. We landed with no more incidents. One thing I will like to point out is that while we were on approach; ATC delayed our landing; even though we declare an emergency; to put another aircraft in front of us and on one and a half mile final they were still in the runway and we almost have to go-around. This event probably occurred because of mis-packaging or mis-handling of HAZMAT. I would like to point out that the only thing we can improve is to put some type of check list to handle this type of situation; or maybe do some research to see if depressurizing the aircraft could help with the fumes.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.