Last weekend, an Aer Lingus flight bound for London Heathrow had to u-turn back to Dublin due to fumes onboard.
This resulted in the hospitalisation of crew onboard the flight following this serious incident.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
EI166: Dublin to London Heathrow…
Aer Lingus flight EI166 is a routine scheduled flight between Dublin and London Heathrow.
The aircraft involved in the incident is registered as EI-DEM.
As per data from Planespotters.net, EI-DEM is a 19.0 year old Airbus A320 that was delivered to the Irish carrier in April 2005.
Of the A320ceo variant, Aer Lingus has 29 of them in the fleet, of which 27 are in active service and two are parked.
Regarding fleet age, this stands at 17.5 years for the A320ceos in the airline’s fleet.
EI166 departed Dublin at 1324 local time on March 9 and initially climbed out towards London Heathrow.
As per @Shauns_Aviation on X, the crew onboard Aer Lingus flight EI166 experienced fumes in the cockpit.
From there, a quick return was made to the Irish airport, where they landed at 1357 local time.
Furthermore, it is understood that the crew were taken to hospital for checks and treatment following this incident.
EI-DEM Grounded Until March 12…
Data from RadarBox.com shows that EI-DEM was grounded as a result of that incident involving fumes in the cockpit.
The aircraft, which was originally due to head to London Heathrow, has been in Dublin all day for fixes.
Preliminary data shows that the aircraft is ready to re-enter commercial service.
It has been placed on the 0655 service to Dusseldorf tomorrow, and is expected to operate flights to Manchester as well.
All eyes will be on whether the issue at hand has been fixed, or whether another incident involving the airframe will happen again.
Did you know AviationSource has two newsletters? One covers the general news and analysis of the industry as a whole, and the other to do with emergencies that take place throughout the year! To subscribe to our General News Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
To subscribe to our Emergencies, Accidents & Incidents Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
Click the photo to join our WhatsApp channel so then you can stay up to date with everything going on in the aviation industry!
