Move Follows An Incident Involving A Canadian Cessna 152

The FAA has issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) to address an airworthiness concern regarding emergency checklist procedures that apply to ventilating smoke and fumes from the airplane cockpit in GA aircraft. It was not previously required to include this procedure into the checklists addressing that situation.

After an in-flight electrical fire in a Canadian-registered Cessna 152 , the Transportation Safety Board of Canada recommended that the “FAA take action to review checklist procedures dealing with smoke and fire in GA aircraft,” and include additional steps to eliminate smoke or fumes. Emergency checklist procedures for certain aircraft did not address ventilating smoke and fumes from the airplane cockpit.

The current FAR requires OEMs to include instructions in their pilot operating handbook (POH) or airplane flight manual (AFM) to remove smoke from the cockpit and passenger cabin of both pressurized and un-pressurized aircraft. Specifically:

• “Each passenger and crew compartment must be suitably ventilated…”
• “If accumulation of hazardous quantities of smoke in the cockpit area is reasonably probable, smoke evacuation must be readily accomplished starting with full pressurization and without depressurizing beyond safe limits.”
• “For all airplanes, information concerning normal, abnormal (if applicable), and emergency procedures and other pertinent information necessary for safe operation and the achievement of the scheduled performance must be furnished…”

The FAA says owners and operators may have modified their aircraft to meet operational requirements or added/removed supplemental type certificates (STC). These alterations could require changes to the original POH or AFM and associated emergency checklist or abnormal procedures checklist.

The FAA recommends the following:

• Owners and operators check their added/removed STC instructions for continued airworthiness for the removal of smoke and fumes against the OEM issued Emergency Checklist.
• If the OEM Emergency Checklist has no instructions for the removal of smoke or fumes in the cockpit, then owners and operators contact the OEM of the make and model airplane for emergency checklist instruction or additions.
• OEMs add to the emergency checklist steps for ventilating smoke and fumes from the cockpit for their specific make and model. OEMs may have to issue service bulletins instructing owners and operators where and what to write into the emergency checklist or issue a new emergency checklist that contains instructions for the removal of smoke and fumes from the cockpit.

The airworthiness concern is not an unsafe condition that would warrant an AD.

FMI: www.faa.gov