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An air carrier flight crew declared an emergency and diverted when a fadec failure resulted in the auto shutdown of the right engine.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 852204 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200909 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.ARTCC |
| State Reference | US |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Commercial Fixed Wing |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Air Conditioning and Pressurization Pack |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Clearance |
Narrative:
At cruise FL250; #2 fadec fail; followed by #2 engine auto-shutdown. We declared an emergency; and began completing the required checklists and look for a suitable airport to divert to. In the emergency checklist; there is a provision to transfer fuel to maintain an acceptable balance. Having only transferred fuel in this condition in the simulator - the thinking/training is to start transferring and the engine burn from the good engine should come close to the transfer rate. In the sim; this process seems to work. I've never had a fuel imbalance pose an issue; even operating on one engine for extended periods of time. In real life; however... In less than 10 minutes we had a 1000 pound imbalance. Instead of transferring fuel to the bad engine - I elected to shut off the transfer and let the good engine try burn off the imbalance. About this time; we were cleared direct to ZZZ. I typed in the VOR in the FMS. ATC didn't question our path; but in thinking about it after the flight - I think we were cleared to the airport instead of the VOR. ATC didn't raise this as an issue.this was an emergency situation with high stress and high task saturation. The actual fuel transfer rate was much higher than I anticipated or expected. Not being too familiar with; and not planning a flight to the divert airport; the VOR stands out much more clearly on the IFR chart.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: An air carrier flight crew declared an emergency and diverted when a FADEC failure resulted in the auto shutdown of the right engine.
Narrative: At cruise FL250; #2 FADEC FAIL; followed by #2 Engine Auto-shutdown. We declared an emergency; and began completing the required checklists and look for a suitable airport to divert to. In the emergency checklist; there is a provision to transfer fuel to maintain an acceptable balance. Having only transferred fuel in this condition in the simulator - the thinking/training is to start transferring and the engine burn from the good engine should come close to the transfer rate. In the sim; this process seems to work. I've never had a fuel imbalance pose an issue; even operating on one engine for extended periods of time. In real life; however... In less than 10 minutes we had a 1000 pound imbalance. Instead of transferring fuel to the bad engine - I elected to shut off the transfer and let the good engine try burn off the imbalance. About this time; we were cleared direct to ZZZ. I typed in the VOR in the FMS. ATC didn't question our path; but in thinking about it after the flight - I think we were cleared to the airport instead of the VOR. ATC didn't raise this as an issue.This was an emergency situation with high stress and high task saturation. The actual fuel transfer rate was much higher than I anticipated or expected. Not being too familiar with; and not planning a flight to the divert airport; The VOR stands out much more clearly on the IFR chart.
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.