Poor communication caused ATR incident
‘Ineffective communication’ has been given as the cause of an incident where a wet-lease aircraft dropped below the safe minimum height during an approach to Guernsey made in thick fog.
The Jump Air ATR had been operating a service from Southampton on 12 August last year on behalf of Aurigny and was put into a holding pattern for 45 minutes.
But the crew then attempted to land and at about 70ft above ground level, aborted the attempt and initiated a go-around.
The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch found that the pilots were both aware of the approach ban but it was not mentioned or included in the approach brief.
During the flight to Guernsey, neither pilot discussed the approach ban or whether it might apply to their subsequent approach.
They did discuss what they would do if the weather was below minimums, and what their subsequent actions for the diversion would be.
‘As the aircraft passed the decision altitude for the approach, there was confusion and miscommunication between the crew, which resulted in the aircraft remaining more or less level with the gear down,’ the incident report concluded.
‘Neither pilot was fully aware of the other pilot’s intentions or the situation. They did not share a common picture of where the aircraft was, or what they were trying to achieve.
‘Despite this when the co-pilot did call for a go-around, the commander immediately complied by pressing the go-around button on the power lever.’
For the next 15 seconds the aircraft did not climb with the pitch attitude remaining around that for level flight with the aircraft at a radio altitude of between 61 and 78 ft.
Having travelled approximately 750m, the aircraft began to climb, and the go-around was completed before the flight returned to Southampton where it landed without further incident.
Outside of the mist and fog the visibility was clear, settled and dry conditions with light winds.
The AAIB said that the operator had taken a number of safety actions to improve the selection and training of crews, as well as to introduce a flight data monitoring programme.
