Flight ‘generated spurious warning’ on way to city

Pilots of a passenger plane who assumed a spurious smoke warning was valid took actions which “significantly degraded the operational capability of the aircraft”, a report said today.

The cockpit crew of the July 2011 Newquay-to-Edinburgh flight, with 47 passengers on board, carried out checklist actions to tackle fire.

A smoke warning light had lit up as the aircraft, operated by Flybe, was about 25 miles south west of Carlisle in Cumbria.

The report said: “The aircraft generated a spurious smoke warning from the forward baggage compartment, which was probably caused by a short circuit in the smoke detector connector.”