Vehicle / E190, Toronto Canada, 2013

Vehicle / E190, Toronto Canada, 2013

Summary

On 11 March 2013, at night, a Sunwing Airlines' mechanic left their vehicle on the ramp with the engine running and in 'drive' and, unseen, it began moving towards the adjacent runway threshold, at which point ATC noticed a ground radar target and instructed an Air Canada Embraer 190 which was close to landing in accordance with a valid clearance to go around. The pilots did not hear these instructions and landed directly over the vehicle with approximately 35 feet clearance without seeing it.

Description

On 11 March 2013, the crew of an Embraer 190 (C-FLWH) being operated by Air Canada on a scheduled passenger flight (ACA178) from Edmonton to Toronto in night Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) and on approach to runway 24R at destination did not hear two ATC instructions to go around given at 200 feet agl and then again at 125 feet agl issued because an unoccupied vehicle had just been detected moving across the runway. As a result, and without becoming aware of the vehicle, they completed the landing, fully clearing the vehicle in the process.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Canadian TSB. Recorded data relevant to the Investigation was overwritten on both 2 hour Digital Voice Data Recorders (DVDRs) after instructions from the TSB to isolate the recorder failed to achieve this in time, apparently because "the guidance provided to maintenance crews regarding the procedure to isolate the digital voice–data recorders was unclear".

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