Description

On 6 June 2010, a Boeing 737-400 being operated by Atlas Blue, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Air Maroc, on a passenger flight from Amsterdam to Nador, Morocco encountered a flock of geese just after becoming airborne from runway 18L in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) close to sunset and lost most of the thrust on the left engine following bird ingestion. A MAYDAY was declared and a minimal single engine climb out was followed by very low level visual manoeuvring not consistently in accordance with ATC radar headings before the aircraft landed back on runway 18R just over 9 minutes later. The aircraft was stopped on the runway where inspection found the right main gear tyres deflated as a result of the high brake unit temperature developed during heavy braking and extensive bird remains in the left main and nose gear bays and in the avionics bay. None of the 162 occupants were injured and the passengers were disembarked using steps brought to the aircraft before being bussed to the terminal.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Dutch TSB. The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and 2 hour Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) recordings were recovered and available to the Investigation. A cross connection in the CVR which had resulted in a 30 minute limit to the CAM channel and a 2 hour limit to the Cabin PA channel instead of the correctly wired opposite was found but was of no consequence to the work of the Investigation.