AT75, vicinity Manchester UK, 2016

AT75, vicinity Manchester UK, 2016

Summary

On 4 March 2016, the flight crew of an ATR72-500 decided to depart from Manchester without prior ground de/anti icing treatment judging it unnecessary despite the presence of frozen deposits on the airframe and from rotation onwards found that manual forward control column input beyond trim capability was necessary to maintain controlled flight. The aircraft was subsequently diverted. The Investigation found that the problem had been attributable to ice contamination on the upper surface of the horizontal tailplane. It was considered that the awareness of both pilots of the risk of airframe icing had been inadequate.

Description

On 4 March 2016, the crew of an ATR ATR-72-500 (G-COBO) being operated by Aurigny Air Services on a scheduled passenger flight from Manchester to Guernsey found as they conducted their take-off and climb that an abnormal amount of nose down pitch input was continuously required to maintain the appropriate pitch attitude and a diversion to East Midlands was made without further problems, with the control problem dissipating prior to commencing the final approach there.

Investigation

After a three day delay in notification because neither the aircraft Captain nor the airline involved considered that the occurrence was notifiable, the UK AAIB was advised and assessed that it had been one ‘which could have caused difficulties controlling the aircraft’ and therefore constituted a 'Serious Incident'. The Operator had already downloaded both the FDR and the CVR after the diversion and the data obtained were passed to the AAIB.

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