Description

On 24 August 2001, an Airbus A330-200 being operated by Air Transat on a passenger flight from Toronto to Lisbon experienced abnormal engine indications during the cruise in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) at night which the crew eventually realised were indicative of insufficient fuel remaining to reach the planned destination. A diversion to Lajes Air Force base in the Azores was successfully completed despite the onset of complete fuel exhaustion when the aircraft was still a considerable distance from the runway. A landing was made after 19 minutes with neither engine functioning and just 5 minutes after the beginning of official daylight. It resulted in deflation of most of the tyres but the aircraft came to a stop on the runway with some resultant structural damage to the fuselage and damage to the main landing gear. The emergency evacuation of the 306 occupants ordered by the aircraft commander resulted in two persons sustaining serious injuries and sixteen others sustaining minor injuries.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Portuguese Office of Accident Investigation, the GPIAA. All but the last nineteen minutes of Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data (when the electrical power status was too low to power the FDR) was available to assist the Investigation. However 90 minutes of the 2 hour Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) recording was found upon downloading to have been overwritten when electrical power was restored to the aircraft after the arrival at Lajes.