Report into cargo plane crash landing raises systems failures
29.04.08
A string of failures caused a cargo plane to crash-land at East Midlands Airport before taking off again and carrying out an emergency landing at Birmingham Airport, 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 in poor weather in June 2006, air traffic control 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 in error, which caused the plane to lose height. He then failed to abort the landing in time and came down on grass alongside the runway, with the impact breaking off the right landing gear.
However, the pilot decided to take off again, and 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 as it came to a hault. None of the crew was injured, but over 200 flights to and from the airport had to be cancelled or diverted and passengers suffered long delays, with thousands bused 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 procedures.'
A month after the incident TNT sacked the Belgian pilot of the cargo flight, saying that although he had shown skill in his handling of the situation, the incident was down to human error. However, the AAIB has recommended that TNT Airways review its standard operating procedures.
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