A320, en-route, north of Swansea UK, 2012

A320, en-route, north of Swansea UK, 2012

Summary

On 7 September 2012, the crew of an Aer Lingus Airbus A320-200 mis-set their descent clearance. When discovering this as the actual cleared level was being approached, the AP was disconnected and the unduly abrupt control input made led to an injury to one of the cabin crew. The original error was attributed to ineffective flight deck monitoring and the inappropriate corrective control input to insufficient appreciation of the aerodynamic handling aspects of flight at high altitude. A Safety Recommendation to the Operator to review relevant aspects of its flight crew training was made.

Description

On 7 September 2012, an Airbus A320-200 (EI-CVA) being operated by Aer Lingus on a scheduled passenger flight from Milan Malpensa to Dublin under R/T callsign Shamrock 43P with 68 occupants, had just begun descent from the cruise in smooth flying conditions when there was a sudden and unexpected upset which led to one of the cabin crew sustaining a serious injury. Once the flight crew had been advised of this, a ‘PAN’ call was made to facilitate expedited completion of the flight and a medical doctor travelling as a passenger rendered interim assistance.

Investigation

When notified of the occurrence, the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) delegated the Investigation to the Irish AAIU. The DFDR was obtained from the Operator and successfully downloaded. The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was also downloaded and included the relevant period.

It was established that the aircraft commander had been designated as PF and noted that both pilots were experienced generally and on aircraft type and had been employed by Aer Lingus for “several years”. The Investigation noted that the CVR record showed that “prior to the occurrence, communications between the flight crew were professional and relaxed”.

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