An A319 captain's mcdu flickered; went blank and a burning smell with light smoke followed. The QRH ...

Narrative:

Approximately 120 miles out from our destination at FL390 the captains mcdu began flickering and then went blank. Subsequently there was a pungent burning smell and what looked like light smoke. We accomplished the smoke/fumes qrc and the smell and what may have been smoke disappeared. The captain conferred with the flight attendants and asked them to check the cabin and report back any smells or other anomalies. The reported everything as normal. While the captain was speaking with the flight attendants I was referencing the closest airports page on my mcdu and found our destination to be the same time as two others nearby and advised him of that. We were able to take off the masks and communicate normally since the odor and possible smoke were no longer present. I advocated that I thought continuing to our destination and asking for a lower altitude while declaring an emergency was what I thought we should do since we had no idea if venting air overboard was masking a still unresolved fire or electrical problem. He agreed and we declared an emergency for smoke/fumes in the cockpit. We sent a message to dispatch notifying them of the declared emergency but had little time to give great detail as we were cleared direct to our destination with a 125 KT tailwind so we were getting busy for landing with winds gusting in the 30's. The captain gave the flight attendants a cabin advisory and we landed without incident on runway 1. The captain chose to decline fire trucks on landing and in hindsight I suppose I wish I had advocated for them since it is cheap insurance. We had no idea if there was a fire or not.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A319 Captain's MCDU flickered; went blank and a burning smell with light smoke followed. The QRH procedure was completed; an emergency declared and the crew continued to its destination without oxygen masks because the smell and smoke dissipated.

Narrative: Approximately 120 miles out from our destination at FL390 the Captains MCDU began flickering and then went blank. Subsequently there was a pungent burning smell and what looked like light smoke. We accomplished the Smoke/Fumes QRC and the smell and what may have been smoke disappeared. The Captain conferred with the flight attendants and asked them to check the cabin and report back any smells or other anomalies. The reported everything as normal. While the Captain was speaking with the flight attendants I was referencing the Closest Airports page on my MCDU and found our destination to be the same time as two others nearby and advised him of that. We were able to take off the masks and communicate normally since the odor and possible smoke were no longer present. I advocated that I thought continuing to our destination and asking for a lower altitude while declaring an emergency was what I thought we should do since we had no idea if venting air overboard was masking a still unresolved fire or electrical problem. He agreed and we declared an emergency for smoke/fumes in the cockpit. We sent a message to Dispatch notifying them of the declared emergency but had little time to give great detail as we were cleared direct to our destination with a 125 KT tailwind so we were getting busy for landing with winds gusting in the 30's. The Captain gave the flight attendants a Cabin Advisory and we landed without incident on Runway 1. The Captain chose to decline fire trucks on landing and in hindsight I suppose I wish I had advocated for them since it is cheap insurance. We had no idea if there was a fire or not.

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.

Attributes
ACN	934619
Time
Date	201102
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	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 14500 Flight Crew Type 900
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 10800 Flight Crew Type 4300
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

An A319 captain's mcdu flickered; went blank and a burning smell with light smoke followed. The QRH procedure was completed; an emergency declared and the crew continued to its destination without oxygen masks because the smell and smoke dissipated.