Edinburgh flight in emergency descent drama

An aircraft flying from the Scottish capital to London City airport was forced to divert to Birmingham.

The Flybe aircraft involved, in 2017. Picture: John Taggart/Wikimedia Commons.

A total of 60 passengers and crew were aboard the Flybe flight last July when a cabin depressurisation warning was activated near Manchester.

Investigators revealed today the alert was the first of ten on the aircraft over the following two months – one of which triggered another emergency descent.

A report by the UK Department for Transport’s air accidents investigation branch today said the latter incident could have been avoided if the aircraft had been thoroughly checked.

The AAIB said: “During a scheduled flight from Edinburgh to London City, the “CABIN PRESS” illuminated and the crew initiated an emergency descent.

“While in the cruise at flight level 250 [25,000ft], the flight crew checked the cabin pressurisation indicators and noticed the cabin altitude indicated 10,000ft with no indication of it increasing.

“After donning their oxygen masks, the crew notified air traffic control and obtained clearance to descend, initially to [20,000ft] and then to [10,000ft] having declared MAYDAY.

“During the descent, at about 15,000ft, the CABIN PRESS warning light extinguished and the cabin pressure indications appeared normal in terms of rate change and cabin pressure.

“This suggested to the flight crew the pressurisation controller was still operating.

“The cabin crew reported no injuries or concern from the passengers.

“Once below 10,000ft, the crew removed tjeir oxygen masks.

“As pressurisation indications now appeared normal, the MAYDAY was cancelled and the aircraft landed without further incident at Birmingham.”

The plane was returned to service later that day following “rectification work” which found no faults

However, nine more such incidents happened over the following two months during some 260 flights, with the pilot logged and led to maintenance checks.

The last one involved another emergency descent in which crew donned oxygen masks.

Flybe took the aircraft out of service for an in-depth investigation which led to the replacement of several components, after which there were no further incidents.