USA TODAY International Edition
Smoke in the cockpit is not always fire sign
Question: Last weekend, a JetBlue flight had to divert due to smoke and an “electrical smell” in the cockpit. What might cause that, how big of a deal is it and has it ever happened to you? – Anonymous
Answer: An electrical smell must be considered a potential fire until it can be conclusively determined otherwise. Usually, it is a cooling fan or some other electrical device that is hot but not a true fire. An in- flight fire is one of the most serious conditions a pilot can face.
Fortunately, actual fires are very, very rare and pilots train for this situation.
I, too, have experienced electrical smells and light smoke in the flight deck. We were able to determine the source and isolate the problem component.
Q: Most of the country is preparing to turn their clocks back on Nov. 3. How much of a pain is this for flight crews and dispatchers? And do they have as much trouble as the rest of us telling time in places like Arizona where they don’t observe daylight savings time? – Anonymous
A: When on short overnight stays with outbound flights the following morning, I have seen messages from dispatchers saying, “Please remember that tonight is the change to/ from daylight saving time.”
Flights that are already in progress at the time of the change are not affected because of the use of Universal Coordinated Time, the worldwide standard. It does not change.
The very few areas that do not change are a challenge for crews to remember which time zone they are in during the time of the year.