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Air Canada Flight 797 Essay

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Air Canada Flight 797 is a well-documented case outlining the dangers of electrical fires and the speed with which a catastrophic situation can develop. AC Flight 797 was a fifteen-year-old Douglas DC-9-32 operating a shuttle flight from Dallas Fort-Wroth to Montreal via Toronto. After departing Dallas at 2125 UTC, Flight 797 began its climb to FL330 and cruised without incident for eighty six minutes until 2251 UTC where three circuit breakers connected to the aft lavatory’s flush motor tripped rapidly, one by one. This catalysed a string of errors, with the Captain falsely assuming that the motor had most likely seized, trying to push the breakers back in to no avail nine minutes after they tripped. The situation began to deteriorate further, with a passenger situated near the aft lavatory noting a burning smell followed by a flight attendant discovering smoke and discharging a fire extinguisher into the lavatory, noting no flames. By 2305 UTC, confusion remained over whether the fire was put out, the source of ignition; the aircraft was still at FL330 with further electrical systems beginning to fail with the left DC and AC systems losing …show more content…

Arcing is most likely to occur from a damaged or exposed wire resulting in huge amounts of current passing through the wire and damaging it, which can result in ignition. It should also be noted that the repeated resetting of a circuit breaker that has popped could further deteriorate a situation by continuing to damage the wire as they become live again. By reenergizing the circuit, this either exacerbates the problem at hand or creates an entirely new one which may have contributed to the speed at which the smoke and fire grew after trying to push the flush motor circuit breakers

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