Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
We encountered an electrical problem [during our flight]. A normal approach and landing was made. There was no damage to the aircraft. I was the Captain.It was night. We were descending through approximately 15;000 ft. and were about 35 NM northwest of the airport; and in the middle of a turn to a new course; when the electrical problem occurred. We had been cleared down to 10;000 ft. The First Officer was flying when the autopilot and autothrottles kicked off; the First Officer's FMC turned off; and many unrelated things on the First Officer's side turned off. There were many; many EICAS messages. It was very confusing.There was no previous indication of potential electrical problems. We were not in a phase of flight; such as the approach; where any electrical switching would take place. The problem did not happen with the movement of any switch or button. It just happened out of the blue. There were no yaw or pitch motions; so there didn't appear to be an aerodynamic issue. All the Captain's screens and instruments appeared normal and I could see the FMC course on my left ND; so I took control of the airplane and finished the turn. At this point I was not thinking about the problem as much as keeping the airplane on course and on altitude. There was a cloud deck below us at around 12;500-13;000 ft. We quickly determined to get ATC into the picture; get permission to level off at 13;000 ft.; get radar vectors and work the problem. ATC helped us as requested; and there were no problems there. The First Officer was right in there with suggestions and with getting our situational awareness to a good level; both with the airplane status and with our flying status. He suggested starting the APU immediately; which we did.I flew while the First Officer worked through the QRH; since I had the only untarnished instrument setup. I slowed down; and our fuel state was ok. It took us a bit of conferencing to determine what the main problem was and what we should work first. We determined that the right AC was depowered; the right generator was tripped; and the right bus tie ISOL light was on. We worked that problem first.The QRH had us reset the right generator. That worked fine and the right generator remained on the line with no problems. That problem was fixed; the right AC bus was powered; and a whole bunch of EICAS messages went away. After a Recall/Review we only had the right bus tie ISOL light/EICAS illuminated and the both Utility buses were off.Next we went into getting the Utility buses reset. The right one didn't reset; so we stopped there. We were in a freighter. We had both main busses powered; got the autopilot and autothrottles back; and the right FMC. I elected to have us fly and land the aircraft in this configuration; and the First Officer concurred. I gave the aircraft back to the First Officer for him to make the landing. We redid the descent flow; and everything was working and set as before; except the autobrakes had to be reset to the 3 setting. The autobrakes held the 3 setting. A recheck of the MCP settings found that none had changed.The field was VFR under an overcast; so I saw no reason to go elsewhere. It was a long runway; and there was maintenance there. Vectors and approach were as normal; the approach MCP selection and switching were normal except we got a No Land 3 message; as expected. The autopilot and autothrottles were working normally. The autopilot and autothrottles were disconnected at 1-2 miles and a normal landing was made. The autobrakes; spoilers; and thrust reversers worked normally. On the ground afterward Maintenance said the problem had happened before with this airplane.
B767-300 Captain reported landing safely after experiencing loss of the right generator and consequently multiple electrical busses.