In-flight Fire
Fire or smoke aboard in flight. It is time-critical: historically, crews have had well under half an hour from the first smell of smoke.
In-flight fire investigations focus on the ignition source — wiring, cargo, lithium batteries, oxygen generators — the material that let the fire propagate, and the detection and suppression available in that compartment.
The other half is the crew response: smoke drills, whether the aircraft was landed immediately, and whether the checklist sequence cost time the fire did not allow.
Related terms
A formal proposal from the investigators to a regulator or operator. Recommendations are not binding — the regulator decides what to mandate.
A component or system failed in service. The investigation asks why the part failed and why the failure was not contained by design, inspection or redundancy.