A332, en-route, near Dar es Salaam Tanzania, 2012

A332, en-route, near Dar es Salaam Tanzania, 2012

Summary

On 27 February 2012, the crew of an Airbus A330 en route at night and crossing the East African coast at FL360 encountered sudden violent turbulence as they flew into a convective cell not seen on their weather radar and briefly lost control as their aircraft climbed 2000 feet with resultant minor injuries to two occupants. The Investigation concluded that the isolated and rapidly developing cell had not been detected because of crew failure to make proper use of their weather radar, but noted that activation of flight envelope protection and subsequent crew action to recover control had been appropriate.

Description

On 27 February 2012, the crew of an Airbus A330-200 (F-GZCG) being operated by Air France on a scheduled passenger flight from Antananarivo, Madagascar to Paris CDG in dark night conditions entered Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) and encountered unanticipated severe turbulence. They briefly lost control of their aircraft as it rapidly climbed 2000 feet at a high rate before full recovery was achieved as the worst of the turbulence passed. One member of the cabin crew and one passenger sustained minor injuries during the excursion. The aircraft was undamaged.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) using recorded data from the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and QAR and weather satellite imagery. The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) record of the event was overwritten. The aircraft commander was PF for the flight.

The full content of this page is available to registered users only.
Please Log in or Register

SKYbrary Partners:

Safety knowledge contributed by: