B738, en-route, east southeast of Adelaide Australia, 2017

B738, en-route, east southeast of Adelaide Australia, 2017

Summary

On 13 September 2017, the airspeed of a Boeing 737-800 unexpectedly increased during an intentionally high speed descent and the Captain’s overspeed prevention response, which followed his taking over control without following the applicable procedure, was inappropriate and led directly to cabin crew injuries, one of which was serious. The Investigation found that the speed increase had been the result of a sudden decrease in tailwind component associated with windshear and noted that despite moderate clear air turbulence being forecast for the area, this had not resulted in the seat belt signs being on or any consequent cabin crew briefing.

Description

On 13 September 2017, a Boeing 737-800 (VH-VUE) being operated by Virgin Australia on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Melbourne to Adelaide was conducting a high speed descent in day VMC when flight crew response to an indicated airspeed increase to prevent an overspeed led to cabin crew injuries, one of which was serious. The rest of the accident flight was without further event but the seriously injured cabin crew had to remain where they had fallen to avoid the risk of further aggravating the injury and their post flight removal from the aircraft by ambulance crew could not be safely accomplished for over an hour.

Investigation

An Investigation into the Accident was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). The FDR and CVR were removed from the aircraft and their data successfully downloaded and the aircraft operator also provided a copy of the parallel QAR recording.

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

SKYbrary Partners:

Safety knowledge contributed by: