TAP Portugal’s ATR 72 landing accident ..

Air accident investigators have stated that a lack of properly trained pilots may have caused the tailstrike on an ATR 72-600 being operated by White Airways on behalf of TAP Portugal, on July 6, 2018. The accident occurred when the aircraft was landing in Morocco and was under the control of a trainee ATR first officer.

The ATR had been flying from Lisbon Portela Airport to Fes Sais International Airport under the control of the first officer.

According to the Portuguese air accident investigation board, the aircraft’s flight path became destabilised after the autopilot was switched off at approximately 1,300ft and four nautical miles from Fes Sais International Airport’s Runway 27.

Although operating in visual conditions the ATR began to dip below the ILS glideslope while at the same time dropping below the calculated 109kts approach speed. As the pitch was increased the airline levelled out at 700ft passing above the glideslope whereupon a nose-down input at 350ft increased the rate of descent and airspeed.

Despite the erratic approach to the runway the first officer elected to continue on the approach, rather than abort the landing and go around. The captain finally took control of the aircraft at just 20ft and made an emergency nose-up input. This resulted in the ATR72 striking the runway and its rear fuselage scraping the runway for more than 350 meters.

The inquiry into the incident pointed out that White Airways ATR operation is very demanding in terms of hours and cycles. At the time of the accident, the Porto Salvo airline had just 41 captains, 28 first officers and five trainees for a flight composed of eight aircraft.

Although having planned for a ratio of five crews per aircraft, the ratio of first officers worked out to be 3.5.

According to Flightglobal.com states that the investigators found that White Airways had problems recruiting personnel due to its size.

“At the time of the event, operators found it difficult to maintain their pilot workforce due to market conditions,” says the inquiry.

“The lack of pilots in the operator – in particular first officers – may have conditioned the trainee first officer’s release for flight without a safety pilot, even though she revealed aircraft handling difficulties during the landing phase.”

Upon examining the first officer’s training record, investigators found several comments regarding their difficulty with the landing, something that the captain aboard was aware of.

To add further problems to the incident, the aircraft returned to Lisbon in an unworthy state after the captain failed to notice the damage done to the aircraft. It was only spotted the following day during a pre-flight inspection and immediately taken out of service.