Report raises failures on cargo flight ‘catastrophe’
29.04.08
A string of failures caused a plane to crash-land at an airport before taking off again and carrying out an emergency landing at another, a report by air accident investigators has said. It highlights inappropriate and incorrect procedures that could have led to a ‘catastrophe’.
In its report on the incident, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said that at a critical moment on its approach to East Midlands Airport in poor weather in June 2006, air traffic control had wrongly passed a message to the pilot of the Belgium TNT Boeing 737 from his company.
This confused the pilot, who turned off the autopilot, causing the plane to lose height, the report said. He then failed to abort the landing in time and came down on grass alongside the East Midlands runway. The impact broke off the right landing gear, but the pilot decided to take off again.
By the time the plane finally landed in Birmingham, its flaps were jammed, a set of wheels was missing and one engine scraped along the runway in a shower of sparks. None of the crew was injured, but over 200 flights had to be cancelled or diverted and passengers faced long delays with thousands moved to other airports.
The report by the AAIB said: ‘The circumstances of this event could easily have led to a catastrophic accident,' adding that ‘actions by individuals which contributed to the accident were either inappropriate or were not in compliance with existing procedures.'
A month after the incident TNT sacked the Belgian pilot, saying that although he had shown skill in his handling of the situation, the incident was down to human error. The AAIB recommended that TNT Airways review its standard operating procedures.
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