DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Recorders indicate no aircraft malfunction as CRJ100 touches down short of runway
Loss of pilot concentration appears to have played a role in the crash of a Brit Air Bombardier CRJ100 regional jet during a night instrument landing system approach to Brest, France, on 22 June.
Investigators are looking at whether the captain - the only fatality - may have become progressively incapacitated. The remaining two crew and 21 passengers on board escaped, although the aircraft was destroyed by obstacles on the ground and subsequent fire, according to French air accident investigation bureau BEA.
The Brit Air CRJ, on an Air France regional flight from Nantes to Brest, was using the ILS for runway 26L at Brest. However, the wheels "touched down without violence" on the ground about 2,300m (7,500ft) short of the runway and 450m to the left of the extended centreline, and the aircraft (F-GRJS) travelled forward 150m, hitting numerous obstacles before it came to rest and burst into flames, says the BEA.
The BEA reveals there was no indication from the cockpit voice or flight data recorders (CVR/FDR) of any aircraft malfunction. But the FDR, according to the BEA, shows that "in the last few minutes of the flight the aircraft gradually deviated to the left of the ILS localiser axis, then moved above the glideslope, recovered to it, then descended below the glideslope, remaining to the left of the localiser. In the last 25s, the ground proximity warning system sounded several alerts, and there was a distinct increase in the engine power just before the recording ended."
The Brest public prosecutor has told local media that the co-pilot claims he told the pilot to go around, and passengers say they heard the co-pilot say repeatedly "put on the gas". The BEA says it is too early to say whether the captain was incapacitated, but the prosecutor says he considers it a strong possibility.
The Brest Category 3 ILS was serviceable at the time, there were light winds, visibility was 1,400-1,500m, and there was scattered cloud at 200ft.
Turkish investigators probing the 26 May UM Air Yakovlev Yak-42D accident at Trabzon, Turkey, are examining crew fatigue as a factor. Preliminary information indicates the pilots may have been working for 30h before the accident (Flight International, 3-9 June).Source: Flight International
