Description

On 23 November 1997, a McDonald Douglas MD 83 being operated by French Airline AOM Minerve on a scheduled passenger flight from Marseille to Paris Orly made an unintended premature descent almost to terrain impact at 4nm from the destination runway in day Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) before a go around was commenced. A subsequent approach was uneventful and a normal landing ensued. There was no damage to the aircraft or injury to the occupants.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA). It was found that co pilot line training had been in progress over a two day period using an experienced instructor pilot as pilot in command whilst two newly type-qualified co pilots alternated between the right hand seat as operating co pilot and the observer seat. For the incident approach, the aircraft commander had been PF, fog prevailed at destination and an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to Runway 07 was accepted with radar vectoring to the ILS LLZ and an autoland planned.