British Airways B744 near London on Jun 9th 2013, trash compacted into smoke

A British Airways Boeing 747-400, registration G-CIVA performing flight BA-214 from Boston,MA (USA) to London Heathrow,EN (UK) with 312 passengers and 16 crew, was descending towards London and about to enter the Ockham hold when cabin crew observed an acrid smoke from the trash compactor at galley #4 (near door 2L). The flight attendant was unable to isolate the electric supply of the trash compactor, but unpowered the entire galley using the galley power emergency switch. Despite the power being removed the situation worsened, the flight crew declared emergency and performed an expeditious safe landing at Heathrow, the flight crew vacated the runway and stopped. In consultation with emergency service the flight crew decided to continue taxi to the stand, where emergency services removed the trash compactor from the aircraft, subsequently the passengers disembarked normally.

The United Kingdom's Air Accident Investigation Branch released their bulletin stating that the trash compactor was sent to the manufacturer for further analysis, however no conclusive evidence for the cause of the acrid smell was found.

The AAIB concluded: "The operator has included the findings from this event in its review of cabin crew training and fire safety drills."