Smoke and electrical odors in the cockpit during push back caused the flight crew of a dc-8 to retur...

Narrative:

During push back; smoke was seen in the area under the captain's glare shield. Additionally; an electrical burning oder was evident. I turned off all fluorescent lights and the smoke dissipated but the odor remained. The tug was disconnected so we taxied back to the blocks (100 ft). Maintenance and dispatch were notified after we felt the situation was stable. Concurrently; the captain's ivsi became inoperative (no power). Maintenance removed the instrument panel and inspected the instruments and wiring. Water was noticed in areas behind the panel. It had been raining heavily earlier.the aircraft windows should be properly sealed to prevent water from entering areas that contain electrical equipment.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Smoke and electrical odors in the cockpit during push back caused the flight crew of a DC-8 to return to the gate for inspection and maintenance action. Water was found in the wiring behind the pilots' instrument panels; likely from heavy rains prior to their departure.

Narrative: During push back; smoke was seen in the area under the Captain's glare shield. Additionally; an electrical burning oder was evident. I turned off all fluorescent lights and the smoke dissipated but the odor remained. The tug was disconnected so we taxied back to the blocks (100 FT). Maintenance and Dispatch were notified after we felt the situation was stable. Concurrently; the Captain's IVSI became inoperative (no power). Maintenance removed the instrument panel and inspected the instruments and wiring. Water was noticed in areas behind the panel. It had been raining heavily earlier.The aircraft windows should be properly sealed to prevent water from entering areas that contain electrical equipment.

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	937732
Time
Date	201103
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	DC-8 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

Smoke and electrical odors in the cockpit during push back caused the flight crew of a dc-8 to return to the gate for inspection and maintenance action. Water was found in the wiring behind the pilots' instrument panels; likely from heavy rains prior to their departure.