B752, London Gatwick, 2013

B752, London Gatwick, 2013

Summary

An announcement by the Captain of a fully-boarded Boeing 757-200 about to depart which was intended to initiate a Precautionary Rapid Disembarkation due to smoke from a hydraulic leak was confusing and a partial emergency evacuation followed. The Investigation found that Cabin Crew only knew of this via the announcement and noted subsequent replacement of the applicable procedures by an improved version, although this was still considered to lack resilience in one respect. The event was considered to have illustrated the importance of having cabin crew close to doors when passengers are on board aircraft on the ground.

Description

On 23 August 2013, the Captain of a Boeing 757-200 (G-FCLK) being operated by an unrecorded airline with all passengers on board ready to depart from London Gatwick to Tenerife in normal daylight visibility decided that the discovery of hydraulic fluid leaking onto the brakes and producing smoke necessitated a precautionary rapid disembarkation of the passengers. His announcement to that effect was ineffective in communicating what was required and was interpreted by a significant number of the 220 passengers as an instruction to carry out an emergency evacuation during which 5 of them sustained minor injuries.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the UK AAIB. The FDR did not contain relevant data and was not downloaded and although the CVR was successfully downloaded, the recording did not contain any relevant conversations or the Captain's PA announcement because both had taken place beyond the range of the flight deck area microphone and use of the PA system from the Cabin was not otherwise recorded.

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