Description

On 26 September 2009, a Boeing 777-200 being operated by British Airways on a scheduled day passenger flight from St Kitts to Antigua unintentionally began and completed take off from a different intermediate position on the departure runway than the one intended in normal ground visibility and just succeeded in becoming airborne before the end of the paved surface was reached. There was no damage to the aircraft and no injury to the 101 occupants.

Investigation

The UK AAIB was informed of the Incident by the Operator on 29 September 2009 and subsequently notified the Eastern Caribbean CAA, which is the designated Regulator for aviation in States and Territories which belong to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The conduct of the Investigation was then delegated to the UK AAIB.

It was noted that the Operator had begun a new service to St Kitts in January 2009 and that this was the first time either of the incident flight crew had operated to or from there. The Operator’s New Destination Assessment was found to have been completed by reference to the AIP, commercially available charts and NOTAMS and had led to the production of a flight crew Route Brief which did not contain a warning about the lack of taxiway and holding point signage because the Operator was unaware of this having made no site visit prior to the service commencing.