Passenger reports on his involvement in an electrical fumes incident over the atlantic in a B777. He...

Narrative:

During cruise over the atlantic; several flight attendants and a non-uniformed person (presumably an air marshal) gathered in the aisle. It became clear that they were searching for the source of an electrical/burning odor. At the same time; I noted that both my in-flight entertainment system and that of the seat next to me were malfunctioning. I notified the flight attendants that I suspected a link between the two (I am an aerospace engineer familiar with previous ife incidents). They soon turned off the entertainment system; and the consensus shortly thereafter was that the burning odor had subsided. Crucially from a safety standpoint; they kept the system off for the remainder of the flight despite the inconvenience to passengers. Upon landing; one flight attendant remarked that the electrical problems had; at one stage; caused some equipment in the rear lavatories and in the galleys to malfunction; but it is not clear whether these problems were related. I am not sure if my ife observation led to the shutdown of the system; but I hope that flight attendants are trained to think about the ife as a potential source of electrical problems -- acting quickly may be critical in preventing fire that is especially dangerous when the aircraft is far from land.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Passenger reports on his involvement in an electrical fumes incident over the Atlantic in a B777. He observed that the entertainment system failed at about the same time as the odor commenced the system was shutdown and flight continued to destination.

Narrative: During cruise over the Atlantic; several flight attendants and a non-uniformed person (presumably an air marshal) gathered in the aisle. It became clear that they were searching for the source of an electrical/burning odor. At the same time; I noted that both my in-flight entertainment system and that of the seat next to me were malfunctioning. I notified the flight attendants that I suspected a link between the two (I am an aerospace engineer familiar with previous IFE incidents). They soon turned off the entertainment system; and the consensus shortly thereafter was that the burning odor had subsided. Crucially from a safety standpoint; they kept the system off for the remainder of the flight despite the inconvenience to passengers. Upon landing; one Flight Attendant remarked that the electrical problems had; at one stage; caused some equipment in the rear lavatories and in the galleys to malfunction; but it is not clear whether these problems were related. I am not sure if my IFE observation led to the shutdown of the system; but I hope that flight attendants are trained to think about the IFE as a potential source of electrical problems -- acting quickly may be critical in preventing fire that is especially dangerous when the aircraft is far from land.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	841496
Time
Date	200903
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Oceanic
Person 1
Function	Passenger
Events
Anomaly	Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

Passenger reports on his involvement in an electrical fumes incident over the atlantic in a B777. He observed that the entertainment system failed at about the same time as the odor commenced the system was shutdown and flight continued to destination.