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The airplane was carrying 32 passengers and 4 crew
An Aer Lingus flight to Belfast had a serious incident during landing when it suffered a partial electrical techniques failure, a report has discovered.
The pilots skilled “natural effects of startle and surprise… without a specified procedure to follow”, investigators stated.
The airplane was carrying 32 passengers and 4 crew.
Emerald Airlines, unique operator of Aer Lingus Regional providers, stated the flight had “experienced an unforeseen technical difficulty” during its strategy and had landed safely at Belfast City Airport.
The ATR 72-600 started 19 September 2022 with a flight from Belfast City Airport to Leeds Bradford Airport.
While approaching Leeds Bradford, a grasp warning message appeared very briefly. The message reappeared after landing.
Multiple failures
The flight commander mentioned the fault with an engineer who suggested “the underlying cause could be difficult to establish”.
“Therefore, given the transient, asymptomatic nature of the master cautions and the absence of company engineering support in Leeds, they agreed the crew would operate the aircraft back to Belfast for company engineers to investigate further,” the report acknowledged.
The identical grasp warning message occurred on the return flight to Belfast earlier than “multiple failures appeared on the engine warning display” during descent.
Both pilots reported their show as showing “frozen”.
Neither of the airplane’s landing gear deployed and the crew had to manually disable an electrical transformer unit (TRU) to land safely.
Persisting stress
Due to the “sudden magnitude of failure”, the flight crew have been stated to have skilled “a degree of natural startle and surprise, which characteristically affected aspects of their communication and information processing”.
“The ambiguous nature, and unclear source, of the technical symptoms caused persisting stress and surprise while the flight crew attempted to re-evaluate the situation,” the report continued.
The report stated Aer Lingus would undertake a “rule-based structure for situation management” to assist crew “manage startle and rebuild situation awareness”.
The plane producer, ATR, has taken motion to enhance the steering for pilots, in addition to different steps.
A spokesperson at Emerald Airlines stated the “safety and wellbeing” of passengers was their utmost precedence.
“Our dedicated team undergoes rigorous and ongoing training, adhering to industry-standard practices. We have implemented a rule-based structure derived from the manufacturer’s pilot training manuals to assist crews in managing the startle effect,” she added.
