A Lufthansa Airbus A340-600, registration D-AIHY performing flight LH-444 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Atlanta,GA (USA), was climbing out of Frankfurt’s runway 25C when the crew stopped the climb at FL100 reporting they had a “smell event” on board, “es stinkt nach Öl/ Verbrennung/ irgendwas, ziemlich massiv” (translation: it stinks of oil, burning, something, rather massive). The crew indicated that the aircraft was completely okay, however, it was possible they would not continue the flight, they wanted to remain in the vicinity of the airport while troubleshooting. A number of passengers began to complain about nausea and dizziness. About 20 minutes after levelling off at FL100 the crew advised their decision was taken, a number of crew members reported being dizzy because of the odour, they didn’t want to risk anything, they were, therefore, returning to Frankfurt, a fuel dump was not necessary, time was more important, a normal landing was to be expected. The aircraft landed safely back on runway 25C about 40 minutes after departure.
A replacement A340-600 registration D-AIHV reached Atlanta with a delay of 5 hours.
The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground for 12 hours after landing back.
Image © Wikipedia
