A Iberia Airbus A320 operating a flight from Madrid to Rome suffered a loss of cabin pressure, resulting in a diversion to Barcelona.
Incident: Barcelona Diversion: Iberia Madrid-Rome Loss of Cabin Pressure…
Iberia flight IB3234 is a routine scheduled flight between Madrid Barajas and Rome Fiumicino Airport, with the affected rotation being operated by EC-IEG.
As per data from Planespotters.net, EC-IEG is a 21.9 year old airframe, which was delivered to the Spanish carrier back in April 2002.
Of the A320-200 variant, the Spanish carrier has 13 of them, of which all are in active service and feature and average age of 16.5 years.
Iberia flight IB3234 departed Madrid at 1912 local time on November 2 and proceeded eastbound to Rome Fiumicino Airport.
Upon reaching the Barcelona area, the aircraft suffered a loss of cabin pressure, and initiated an emergency descent to FL100 from FL340, as per The Aviation Herald.
Around 35 minutes after that emergency descent, the aircraft made safe passage and landed into Barcelona El Prat Airport, where the remainder of the flight was cancelled due to this incident.
As for EC-IEG, it is understood the aircraft remained grounded for about 19 hours before the appropriate fixes were made, and was able to return to commercial service.
The actions taken by the pilots following this incident are completely normal and do not jeopardise safety at any point during the incident. The emergency descent is to ensure that enough oxygen flows through the aircraft at the lower altitudes.
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