Air Canada Lockheed L-1011 incident
Lockheed L-1011 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL) to Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO85IA024
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Incident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Lockheed L-1011
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-1011
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- CFTNE
- Operator
- Air Canada
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Fort Lauderdale, FLTo Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL), Montreal
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 129: Foreign
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Emergency light(s) › Overtemperature
- Emergency light(s) › Shorted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ENROUTE FM FT LAUDERDALE, FL TO MONTREAL, CANADA, AIR CANADA FLT 087 REQUESTED TO MAKE AN UNSCHEDULED LNDG DUE TO SMOKE IN THE REAR OF THE ACFT. C-FTNE WAS VECTORED TO PATUXENT RVR NAS, PATUXENT, MD AND DESCENDED OUT OF FL 370. THE SMOKE WAS DETERMINED TO BE ORIGINATING FM A BLACK BOX IN AN OVERHEAD BIN LOCATED ABOVE SEAT #42. ATMPS WERE MADE DRNG THE DSCNT TO IDENTIFY THE BOX AND FIND THE APPROPRIATE CIRCUIT BREAKERS BUT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL DUE TO LACK OF LABEL ON THE BOX AND OTHER DUTIES OF THE CREW DRNG DSCNT. THE ACFT LNDD W/O INCIDENT AT PXT NAS AT 2306 HOURS EST ON MARCH 4, 1985, AND THE CPT RPTD THAT THE SMOKE STOPPED WHILE TAXIING TO PKG. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE SMOKE ORIGINATED FROM THE EMGCY PWR PACK WHICH CONTROLS THE EMGCY LIGHTING SYSTEM. A CASE TO CASE ELECTRICAL SHORT BETWEEN 2 ADJACENT CELLS IN THE SELF CONTAINED PACK RESULTED IN OVERHEATING. THIS WAS TRANSFERRED TO THE POLYETHYLENE TAPE USED TO HOLD THE 24 CELLS TOGETHER. AN INTERNAL FUSE IN THE BATTERY CHARGING CIRCUIT WAS FOUND POPPED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85IA024
- Event ID
- 20001214X35849
- Case number
- BFO85IA024
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-03-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e904e597d80a01a6e605e4a2dc613a5f21aae4b0fee1972d2b8bdc110a91bccb; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:30:23.625Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for CFTNE; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, ARNF.