The Portuguese airline reported that flight TP211 landed “in absolute safety.” However, details on when and how the flight to Newark, New York, would resume were not immediately clarified.
According to global flight tracker Flight Radar, the TAP Airbus A321, which departed from Porto, touched down at St. John’s International Airport at 22:46 on Monday (Portuguese time).
A statement from TAP highlighted that cabin air quality issues, encompassing odors, fumes, and smokes, have garnered global attention for many years from commercial aviation operators and manufacturers.
Intense or unpleasant smells on board may originate from the ventilation system, such as antifreeze, electrical or ventilation failures, engine oil, or fuel, as well as items in the cabin or cockpit, like hand luggage, cleaning agents, disinfectants, or pest control products.
“Most odors identified onboard as unusual or strange are not necessarily linked to substances causing physiological reactions,” TAP emphasized.
The airline assured that “these events are continuously and meticulously monitored by TAP through crew reports… to adapt mitigation measures for resolving such occurrences.”
“TAP has been very attentive to these incidents, even though they represent a minor fraction of total flights. This has not deterred us from making every effort to clarify any doubts and actively and persistently pursue solutions available in the industry,” the statement added.
In 2024, there were 1,249 reports of such occurrences in the European database, highlighting the ongoing attention this issue receives from the industry, investigative bodies, and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), according to the Office of Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF).
