Description

On 2 December 2010, a De Havilland Canada DHC8-100 (LN-WIU) being operated by Widerøe on a scheduled domestic flight from Bodø to Svolvær as WIF814 encountered a sudden and severe downdraft and rapidly lost airspeed and altitude as it completed the turn onto visual final following a circling approach at night. Recovery to controlled flight was only achieved after almost stalling. None of the 38 occupants were injured and the attempted approach was then discontinued and a diversion to Leknes made without further event. The crew subsequently continued with a flight to Bodø.

EDITORS NOTE: An animation of the investigated upset was prepared during the Investigation:

Investigation

The Accident Investigation Board Norway (AIBN) was only made aware of the event in December 2012. On the basis of the information then available, the Board concluded in June 2013 that the event had not been a Serious Incident and did not therefore require an independent investigation. Then, in February 2015, the event "was subject to significant attention" and the earlier "decision not to investigate was changed". In mid-March 2015 it was decided that a reassessment of the occurrence should be carried out and after this initial work, the event was re-classified as a Serious Incident and an Investigation in accordance with ICAO Annex 13 principles followed.