Narrative:

While cruising at 17000 feet we received a master caution with the illumination of the primary and aux caution lights. Almost simultaneously the flight instruments on the captain's side went completely dark. We had noticed just prior to receiving the caution lights the faint smell of burning popcorn. So when we received the caution lights I instructed the first officer to suit up and communicate. After he was done I handed the flight controls to the first officer and began the process of suiting up and communicating. Once communications were established center notified us that he lost our mode C. Center advised us that [a suitable alternate] was about 15 miles off of our right side if we wanted to go there. We said we did and were approved to make an immediate right turn to the airport. As the first officer began flying us towards [the alternate] I ran the inverter failure checklist. Once done I then answered the call from the flight attendant who had noticed the odor as well. I told her that we were diverting and that we would be on the ground in 10 minutes. She asked if there was any signal for brace or special instructions and I said no it's an electrical issue and to expect a normal landing. After talking to her I made a PA to the passengers telling them that we were diverting due to an electrical issue and we would be landing in 10 minutes. After making the PA I pulled my charts out for [the alternate] and looked up the ops frequency; tuned in the number 2 radio and called ops notifying them of our situation; and that we would be landing soon. Once that was completed I returned to the number 1 radio where the first officer had been flying and talking to center getting vectors for the visual approach. We ran the descent approach checklist; and then I tuned in the ILS in his navigation radio so that he had a backup as well. After turning us on final; center asked if we could make a frequency change and I said we could so he handed us off to tower. Tower cleared us to land so we slowed down and configured the aircraft for a normal landing. After landing we brought the aircraft to a complete stop on the runway and tower switched us over to ground to establish communications with aarf. When we switched to ground aarf advised us that we could shut down our engines and deplane the passengers through the boarding door. So we turned off the engines and I depowered the airplane and told the first officer to go outside and marshal the passengers in the right direction. After all the passengers were deplaned I made a final sweep of the airplane and then exited the aircraft to talk to the fire chief. The firefighters then went onto the airplane to see if there was any indication of a fire on the flight deck or in the closet. While they were doing that the buses for the passengers arrived and secured all of the passengers and carried them to the terminal. Once aarf was done with the aircraft a tug was brought over to tow the aircraft to a remote parking area where it sat for the rest of the night. It is unknown why both the primary and aux inverters failed in flight. The aircraft operated normally the two flights we flew prior to the incident. There is no way to avoid such an unforeseen event such as this.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dash-8-100 flight crew reported diverting to an alternate airport after both primary and aux inverters failed in flight.

Narrative: While cruising at 17000 feet we received a Master Caution with the illumination of the Primary and Aux caution lights. Almost simultaneously the flight instruments on the Captain's side went completely dark. We had noticed just prior to receiving the caution lights the faint smell of burning popcorn. So when we received the caution lights I instructed the FO to suit up and communicate. After he was done I handed the flight controls to the FO and began the process of suiting up and communicating. Once communications were established Center notified us that he lost our MODE C. Center advised us that [a suitable alternate] was about 15 miles off of our right side if we wanted to go there. We said we did and were approved to make an immediate right turn to the airport. As the FO began flying us towards [the alternate] I ran the inverter failure checklist. Once done I then answered the call from the FA who had noticed the odor as well. I told her that we were diverting and that we would be on the ground in 10 minutes. She asked if there was any signal for brace or special instructions and I said no it's an electrical issue and to expect a normal landing. After talking to her I made a PA to the passengers telling them that we were diverting due to an electrical issue and we would be landing in 10 minutes. After making the PA I pulled my charts out for [the alternate] and looked up the ops frequency; tuned in the number 2 radio and called ops notifying them of our situation; and that we would be landing soon. Once that was completed I returned to the number 1 radio where the FO had been flying and talking to Center getting vectors for the visual approach. We ran the descent approach checklist; and then I tuned in the ILS in his navigation radio so that he had a backup as well. After turning us on final; Center asked if we could make a frequency change and I said we could so he handed us off to Tower. Tower cleared us to land so we slowed down and configured the aircraft for a normal landing. After landing we brought the aircraft to a complete stop on the runway and tower switched us over to ground to establish communications with AARF. When we switched to Ground AARF advised us that we could shut down our engines and deplane the passengers through the boarding door. So we turned off the engines and I depowered the airplane and told the FO to go outside and marshal the passengers in the right direction. After all the passengers were deplaned I made a final sweep of the airplane and then exited the aircraft to talk to the fire chief. The firefighters then went onto the airplane to see if there was any indication of a fire on the flight deck or in the closet. While they were doing that the buses for the passengers arrived and secured all of the passengers and carried them to the terminal. Once AARF was done with the aircraft a tug was brought over to tow the aircraft to a remote parking area where it sat for the rest of the night. It is unknown why both the Primary and Aux inverters failed in flight. The aircraft operated normally the two flights we flew prior to the incident. There is no way to avoid such an unforeseen event such as this.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.