Irish budget carrier Ryanair has heightened its stress-awareness training after investigators found that a shambolic approach conducted by a Boeing 737-800 crew led to a serious high-speed landing incident at
Specialists from the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) have concluded that the aircraft’s captain was under personal pressure at the time, prompting “irrational” and “inexplicable” behaviour which was “contrary” to all his training.
While the flight from London Stansted on 21 July last year had been uneventful, the captain was late commencing the descent into Skavsta. He subsequently became concerned about being too high on the visual approach and, while attempting to establish an appropriate glide profile, pushed the aircraft into a steep descent, with the 737 exceeding 12° nose-down pitch.
The aircraft’s descent rate at times reached 6,200ft/min and its increasing airspeed prevented the selection of the correct flap-setting for landing.
“During this time normal operator procedures were not followed and crew resource management requirements were so ignored as to be non-existent,” says the AAIU in its report into the event. It says that the relatively-junior first officer recollected suggesting the aircraft was flying too high and too fast but that these statements had no effect.
No go-around was requested and ground-proximity warning system alarms were ignored. The jet landed at about 180kt – about 30-40kt above normal touchdown speed – in the correct zone of the runway, with its flaps at 10° rather than the normal 30°.
None of the 184 passengers and six crew members was injured, but the AAIU says: “It was fortuitous that the landing was carried out safely.”
In a statement to the investigators the captain – who had been on his last day of duty at the airline before moving abroad – explained that he had been suffering personal problems and should have called in sick.
He admitted to feeling psychologically and physiologically fatigued and said: “I cannot understand myself how it was possible for me to show such poor judgement. I can only imagine that certain personal stresses and tiredness affected my ability to think rationally.”
Ryanair has since introduced additional training, in line with investigators’ recommendations, to draw attention to the “insidious” nature of stress, and highlight the need for first officers to demonstrate appropriate assertiveness.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
