MD82, Tarbes France, 2018

MD82, Tarbes France, 2018

Summary

On 16 January 2018, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 attempting to land at Tarbes was subject to gross mishandling by the crew and the approach became unstable. A subsequent low level go-around attempt was then made without setting sufficient thrust which resulted in sustained and close proximity to terrain at an airspeed close to stall entry before the required thrust was eventually applied. The Investigation was hindered by non-reporting of the event but was able to conclude that multiple pilot errors in a context of poor crew coordination during the approach had caused confusion when the go around was initiated.

Description

On 16 January 2018, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (LZ-LDM) being operated by Bulgarian Air Charter on a non-scheduled international passenger flight from Catania to Tarbes as BUC8115 became unstable below 500 feet in day VMC but descent was continued until just above the runway elevation before a go around was commenced. However, although the aircraft was rotated, the corresponding climb did not commence for a further mile during which the airspeed almost reached that at which a stall would have occurred. In the event, control was regained just in time and a diversion to Toulouse followed without further event.

Investigation

After notification of the event to the French BEA by the Tarbes ATC, it was classified as a Serious Incident and then agreed that the required Investigation would be carried out by the Bulgarian Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU). Relevant data from the FDR was successfully downloaded but due to the failure of the flight crew involved to report the event, relevant data from the CVR was overwritten. It was noted that ground observers of the event at Tarbes had been “terrified by the approach and the things which happened expecting the plane to crash at any moment”.

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