16 May, 2019

TUI 787-9 Dreamliner Gatwick landing drama report issued.

Photo paineairport.com
The UK's Air Accident Investigation Branch detailed an incident involving a TUI Boeing 787 Dreamliner at London Gatwick Airport on 6 July 2018 at 1711 in its May bulletin.

The aircraft, registration G-TUIM, a 787-9 was operating a flight from the holiday island of Tenefire back to the UK and was on approach to Runway 26L at London Gatwick Airport and the crew was configuring the aircraft for landing. After flaps 1 was selected, there was a progressive deterioration in the normal flight controls, landing gear lowering and nosewheel steering capabilities.  Initially, the slats primary fail and flaps primary fail on the Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System - EICAS - messages were displayed. There was difficulty in lowering the nose landing gear, indicating nose wheel steering fault.  



The flight deck crew decided to abort the landing and perform a go-around so they could action the relevant checklists and further asses the situation. The nose landing gear was lowered using the alternate system, but a fault was indicated with the nosewheel steering. The crew then attempted a landing again, aware they might not have nose wheel steering capabilities and selected flats 20. The Autobrake was used initially, using the rudder for directional control and then manual braking was applied to bring the aircraft to a rapid halt.

In the passenger cabin of the 787,   A Nature; Intentions; Timings; Special instructions Briefing (NITS) was given by the flight deck crew to the cabin crew for a precautionary landing due to the issues initially. This was upgraded on the final approach to cover an emergency landing once the potential ramifications of the nosewheel steering problem had been considered.  The senior cabin crew member briefed the other cabin crew, using the interphone for a precautionary landing but, on instruction from the commander, he then briefed the passengers and cabin crew for an emergency landing and on the brace positions. 

He then looked out of the window and realised the aircraft was quite low and having not heard any “crew at stations” or “brace” commands from the flight deck, he initiated the “brace, brace, heads down, heads down” commands, which were heard by the other cabin crew and repeated by them. After the aircraft landed and came to a stop, the “cabin crew standby, standby” PA was made by the commander. Shortly afterwards, the commander made the “cabin crew normal operations, normal operations” PA and provided an explanatory PA to the passengers. The engines were stopped on the runway and the aircraft was towed to stand where the passengers were disembarked normally.

The incident was caused by the Nose Landing Gear Isolation Valve (NLGIV) failing to open when commanded which meant that the leading-edge slats, trailing edge flaps, nose landing gear and nosewheel steering would not operate normally. The alternate electrical system was used to select flaps 20 and lower the nose landing gear. 



The full report can be found here.


Recommended for you...

Search