On December 4th, a Boeing 747-8i operated by German carrier Lufthansa encountered cabin pressurization issues as it began its flight from Chicago O'Hare to Frankfurt Airport. The incident ultimately led to the crew deciding to return to Chicago, which required a fuel dump. Today, we take a closer look at this incident.

An uncertain ascent

Last weekend, on Sunday, December 4th, a Lufthansa Boeing 747-8i registered D-ABYD departed Chicago O'Hare as LH431. The aircraft, bound for Frankfurt, departed some 45 minutes late - 16:54 local time, rather than the scheduled time of 16:10.

According to The Aviation Herald, the flight was cleared to climb to 15,000 feet. However, the crew stopped the climb at 12,000 feet, instead descending back down to 10,000 feet. The reason for this slight descent was cited as problems related to cabin pressurization. As you can see from the speed and altitude chart below, some six minutes had passed since take-off.

After flying at 10,000 feet for about eight minutes, the aircraft resumed its ascent to cruising altitude. However, the crew again had to stop the process, this time, at FL250. The crew continued at this altitude in the general direction of their planned route to Frankfurt.

Return to Chicago O'Hare

After 50 minutes, the crew decided to stop the climb and made the decision return to Chicago. Located in the region of western Quebec, the aircraft was overweight for landing as it had enough fuel to carry it across the Atlantic. With this taken into consideration, the aircraft descended to FL200 and dumped fuel as it passed over central-eastern Ontario en route back to Chicago.

Some three hours and 45 minutes after its initial departure, the 747-8 landed on Chicago's runway 28C. This took place at approximately 20:38 local time.

The Aviation Herald notes that there were reports of passengers having trouble with their ears, although there were no reports of oxygen masks being released. The flight was subsequently canceled and passengers were rebooked onto other flights, which departed the following day.

As for the incident aircraft, D-ABYD remained on the ground for about 21 hours. The jumbo jet was then ferried back to Frankfurt on December 5th as flight LH9875. Touching down at its home base of Frankfurt on December 6th, the aircraft spent three days on the ground. Then, on December 9th, it was returned to service with its initial flight being LH462 - a service from Frankfurt to Miami.

At the time of this article's publication, the 747 is completing a return service between Frankfurt and Los Angeles.

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Aircraft history

Data from Planespotters.net tells us that D-ABYD is a nearly 10 and a half-year-old Boeing 747-8i that was delivered to Lufthansa in August of 2012. Powered by four GEnx-2B engines, the aircraft has a current four-class configuration of eight first class seats, 80 in business, 32 in premium economy, and 244 in standard economy.

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Sources: FlightRadar24.com, The Aviation Herald, Planespotters.net

• 

  Lufthansa

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  LH/DLH

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Frankfurt Airport, Munich Airport

  Year Founded:

  1953

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  Airline Group:

  Lufthansa Group

  CEO:

  Carsten Spohr

  Country:

  Germany