Smoke in air cabin explained

A FAULTY bearing has been blamed for a mid-air incident that filled a Jetstar flight’s cabin with smoke and forced it to make an unscheduled landing in Brisbane.

The Airbus A320 was on the way from Sydney to Cairns on September 22 last year when the crew smelled a burning odour and followed safety procedures to land in Brisbane as the cabin filled with smoke.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau report, released yesterday, found the right engine No. 3 bearing had failed, resulting in “engine power loss” and smoke filling the cabin. However, investigators were not able to determine what caused the bearing to fail.

The report praises the efforts of the Jetstar crew, particularly given the captain had not met the other crew members before the flight. At the time of the incident, the airline said no emergency had been declared.

“While it’s rare for something like this to happen, our crew are trained to deal with these type of situations and they handled the situation very professionally,” Jetstar said.