Description

On 28 March 2018, a Boeing 787-9 (G-CKWC) being operated by Norwegian on a scheduled international passenger flight from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires at night in VMC was observed by ATC to only just get airborne before reaching the end of the runway. There was no communication between the crew and ATC about this after takeoff and it took some time for the event to be recognised as initially a reportable event and eventually as a Serious Incident.

Investigation

An Investigation by the UK AAIB was only commenced after it first learned of the event on 14 May 2018 from the UK CAA who themselves had not received a MOR from the aircraft operator detailing the occurrence until 30 April 2018. They in turn had learned of the event only after an internal report raised by ATC had been copied to them and had then evaluated the downloaded flight data against the performance requirements before concluding that it was within MOR reporting requirements. Neither the ANSP nor the airport operator reported the event to the CAA as a MOR and quite apart from MOR reporting requirements, the Investigation noted that, since the event was “a gross failure of the aircraft to achieve its predicted takeoff performance”, there was a statutory requirement to report it as a Serious Incident without delay.