We all know the feeling of mild worry that comes about when you’re handed a drink on a flight and have to trust the wobbly tray table not to ruin your day.
For pilots, the stakes are significantly higher, and no occasion demonstrates this better than the two separate instances where a drink spillage on the flight deck really did ruin the flight crews’ day.
The result was not just a damp leg, but an uncommanded engine shutdown and emergency landing.
Cockpit Coffee Problems
An incident on January 21 reportedly involved a Delta Air Lines Airbus A350-900 travelling to Seoul, which diverted to Fairbanks, Alaska after its right-hand Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine shut down without warning and wouldn’t relight.
Around 15 minutes before the stoppage, it’s been reported that a cup of coffee was spilt on the centre pedestal unit situated between the pilots. The spillage was mainly focused on the integrated control panel (ICP) for engine-start and electronic centralised aircraft monitor (ECAM) functions.
A similar incident reportedly occurred in November last yea…
