An incident involving an Airbus A330 at Düsseldorf, Germany, demonstrates the advantages of an advanced emergency communication (ERCOM) system.1 While the aircraft was in flight, the captain declared an emergency because of a fire at door2 left. The first officer independently called the aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) unit, which also was alerted by air traffic control (ATC) because of the declared emergency. The ARFF unit prepared accordingly.
Agreements were made about where the aircraft would stop after it landed and the preparations to be made by the flight crew. After the aircraft landed, the ARFF unit was able to immediately approach the affected door from outside with an infrared camera and report directly to the flight crew that there was no longer a fire.
Following the incident, the captain said the information from the ARFF unit contributed to an easing of tension and t…
