A319
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Troubleshooting; Confusion
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Evacuated; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
L1 door closed. Jetway removed. Cargo doors open. APU on. Large amount of smoke blowing from right side of aircraft. Cargo Smoke ECAM warning. Actions started. Ground crew chief appeared in front of aircraft giving hand signal to shutdown APU. APU auto shutdown. Aircraft dark. Confirmation from crew chief no active fire. Tower closed. ARFF (Airport Rescue and Firefighting) summoned via crew chief radio. Jetway brought to plane. Rapid deplaning of passengers.The startle factor to go from routine to not routine in less than a minute.No prevention would stop a repeat of this event. The positive outcome is directly attributable to the training that we receive. When the smoke appeared; we used a ' global assessment' to determine the aircraft's status. Using the resource of the crew chief we elected to bring jet way to aircraft to facilitate passenger deplaning and provide lighting.
Jet bridge removed; waiting on cargo doors to close when large plum of thick white/grey smoke came over the top of the airplane (winds were blowing strong from tail. Ground personnel came running from right side of airplane and gave the shutdown APU signal. Concurrently we received and Aft Cargo Bay Smoke ECAM message and began executing the procedures. The APU auto shutdown and the plane went dark. Ground personnel pulled the jet bridge over and we deplaned and called Maintenance. Crash/Fire was dispatched.APU tailpipe fire.
A319 flight crew reported a Cargo Smoke ECAM message and began checklist operations. Ground personnel signaled to shut down APU and APU auto shutdown. Passengers were removed from aircraft.