Description

On 19 March 2008, a Dornier 328-100 being operated by Cirrus AL on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Berlin Tempelhof to Mannheim made a long landing on the dry surface of runway 27 at destination in benign daylight weather conditions following a non precision approach before leaving the paved surface and colliding with an earth bank about 50 metres beyond the end of it. The impact severely damaged the aircraft but there was no fire and only five of the 27 occupants sustained injuries, all minor.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (Germany) (BFU) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) data was successfully downloaded. It was found that the inexperienced First Officer had been designated PF and that, although the aircraft commander was relatively experienced,” his leadership skills as a PIC were not always without fault”.

During the flight from Berlin, it was noted that there was considerable evidence of the aircraft commander ‘coaching’ the First Officer and that whilst he was occupied on a Company call on COM 2, a significant level bust had been made by the PF which had taken the aircraft below the prevailing Minimum Sector Altitude.