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Airline urged to review wind conditions for landing


AER Arann has been recommended to review its maximum cross-wind limits when landing at Shannon Airport.

The recommendation was included in the preliminary report from the Air Accident Investigation Unit following an incident involving an Aer Arann plane at Shannon on July 17. The incident resulted in the closure of the airport for a few hours, although no injuries were sustained.
The preliminary report states, “The final touch-down was not discernible on good-quality CCTV, as it occurred at an earlier point along the runway than the first approach. However, the landing run just after touchdown was clearly recorded. This showed the aircraft with the nose wheel collapsed and the nose scraping along the runway. Smoke/steam was observed emanating from the nose area. The aircraft continued along the runway, initially on the centre line. It gradually veered to the left and exited the runway surface onto the grass to the left of the runway, as it approached the Taxiway Alpha.
“The left propeller struck a runway sign, demolishing it and damaging one propeller blade. The aircraft continued to turn to the left and came to a stop at the left edge of Taxiway Alpha, in line with the taxiway heading. The final stopping point was 1,200 metres from the initial impact marks on the runway.”
The crew was not able to maintain control of the plane. “The flight crew had no directional control of the aircraft from the initial runway impact to the final stopping point, as the nose wheel steering was inoperative due to the collapsed nose wheel and the rudder was jammed in the mid position. The flight crew were also unable to shut down the engines by retarding the condition levers, as the levers would not retard to the aft position. The flight crew therefore decided to stop the engines by pulling the fire handles.
“The flight crew decided not to perform an emergency evacuation, as they had not detected any evidence of fire or smoke. However, the cabin crew subsequently detected a smell of burning and initiated an evacuation.
“Four passengers evacuated the aircraft via the rear (left) air-stairs before the airport fire services arrived on scene approximately 1 minutes 40 seconds after the aircraft came to a stop.”
With regard to the accident response, the report states, “Shannon Tower was concerned by the initial landing and bounce and during the go-around they alerted the fire station watch that there may be a problem. When the nose made ground contact on the second approach, the crash alarm was sounded immediately.
“The fire crews arrived on scene and assisted the passengers to exit the aircraft by rear air-stairs, apart from four passengers, who had already exited the aircraft.”
The report states that Shannon approach charts for the day had a warning about turbulence and/or windshear.
It found that on the previous evening, the same aircraft, but with different flight crew, reported difficult conditions on approach to the runway on two separate flights. In both cases, the wind strength, gusts and direction were very similar to those at the time of the accident.
The report contains a safety recommendation that Aer Arann review maximum cross-wind limitations for approaches onto the runway in question at Shannon, in conditions where the wind direction lies in the sector from 260degrees to 320degrees and the wind speed is more than 15kts and turbulence may be expected.
It states that Aer Arann have informed the investigation that it has addressed the content of the safety recommendation through the issue of a flight crew instruction.
The investigation into the incident is still continuing and a final report will be published in due course.

 

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