A359, vicinity Frankfurt Germany, 2020

A359, vicinity Frankfurt Germany, 2020

Summary

On 1 January 2020, an Airbus A350-900 made an unstabilised night ILS approach to Frankfurt in good visual conditions, descending prematurely and coming within 668 feet of terrain when 6nm from the intended landing runway before climbing to position for another approach. A loss of situational awareness was attributed to a combination of waypoint input errors, inappropriate autoflight management and communication and cooperation deficiencies amongst the operating and augmenting flight crew on the flight deck.

Description

On 1 January 2020, an Airbus A350-900 (HA-THF) being operated by Thai Airways on an international passenger flight from Phuket to Frankfurt as TG926 with an augmented crew descended at a high rate and high speed significantly below the ILS glidepath whilst approaching their destination in night VMC. With a 3000 feet rate of descent and an airspeed of 210 KCAS, an automatic go around was eventually programmed and TOGA thrust selected at 936 feet agl with the lowest point before climb commenced  being 668 feet agl when 6.43 nm from the runway. Once the recovery climb had been completed, the flight was subsequently completed without further event. 

A359 vic Frankfurt 2020 flight path vertical profile

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