Narrative:

On final; shortly after autopilot was disconnected a mosquito appeared in the cockpit. This was a great distraction to my first officer (first officer) who was pilot flying. They repeatedly tried swatting at the mosquito while hand flying the aircraft. I grabbed the rolled up release and smashed the mosquito so that my first officer would no longer be distracted. After swatting the mosquito a ding was heard for caution message and the caution switch light illuminated. There was a passenger ox on message. I instructed the first officer to continue the landing. After exiting the runway and completing the after landing check I instructed to the first officer to speak with the flight attendant (flight attendant) to assess the situation. We continued to the hold pad since our gate was not open. In the hold pad I spoke with the flight attendant about the passengers and the masks. She informed me that no passenger donned the masks as she made an announcement that they had deployed in error. Once our gate opened we taxied over and deplaned the passengers. All passengers appeared in good spirits despite the wait in the hold pad and the masks. I notified maintenance of the deployment and they arrived at the aircraft. I informed them of what occurred and showed them that the guard did not function properly to protect the switch from inadvertent activation. The cause of this event was the distraction caused by the mosquito in the cockpit and the failure of the switch guard on the passenger oxygen switch. More training or awareness that this switch guard failure is a known issue and to avoid the switch as much as possible or refit or repair those guards which do not function properly.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ 200 flight crew reported accidentally deploying the passengers oxygen masks after being distracted by a mosquito in the cockpit.

Narrative: On final; shortly after autopilot was disconnected a mosquito appeared in the cockpit. This was a great distraction to my First Officer (FO) who was pilot flying. They repeatedly tried swatting at the mosquito while hand flying the aircraft. I grabbed the rolled up release and smashed the mosquito so that my FO would no longer be distracted. After swatting the mosquito a ding was heard for caution message and the caution switch light illuminated. There was a PAX OX ON message. I instructed the FO to continue the landing. After exiting the runway and completing the after landing check I instructed to the FO to speak with the Flight Attendant (FA) to assess the situation. We continued to the hold pad since our gate was not open. In the hold pad I spoke with the FA about the passengers and the masks. She informed me that no passenger donned the masks as she made an announcement that they had deployed in error. Once our gate opened we taxied over and deplaned the passengers. All passengers appeared in good spirits despite the wait in the hold pad and the masks. I notified Maintenance of the deployment and they arrived at the aircraft. I informed them of what occurred and showed them that the guard did not function properly to protect the switch from inadvertent activation. The cause of this event was the distraction caused by the mosquito in the cockpit and the failure of the switch guard on the passenger oxygen switch. More training or awareness that this switch guard failure is a known issue and to avoid the switch as much as possible or refit or repair those guards which do not function properly.

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.