Airport Failed To Spot Landing Gear Damage

An Air Accident Board report has concluded that a Thomas Cook Airbus A320 aircraft was permitted to take-off on two occasions after engineers at two airports failed to spot damage to the undercarriage.

The problems with the Thomas Cook Airbus originated from a hard landing in November 2006 at Bristol Airport that had been caused by heavy cross-winds. The following day the flight took off from Bristol Airport and had to be diverted to Manchester Airport. Manchester Airport engineers failed to notice the damage on the aircraft and it was passed for flight from the airport. However when the Airbus took off from Manchester Airport the flight crew were unable to raise the undercarriage meaning that it had to turn around and land again at the airport.

The report by the Air Accident Board noted that that engineers would have had to have used a jack to spot the damage and that guidance on this in the aircraft manual was unclear. The report summarised that the aircraft had sustained substantial damage after the hard landing but that this damage was not detected before the aircraft was cleared for flight. The damage that was sutained was in the form of a tube in the undercarriage that had been ruptured, the problem was eventually discovered after the air crew of the Airbus made notes of warnings that were shown in the cockpit when they discovered the problem which was passed onto engineers.

The report has also concluded that engineers had not received significant training in the use of computer software that allowed them to access the aircraft flight manuals. According to Thomas Cook this is now being remedied to ensure the problems cannot re-occur.

Published by: Jon Vickery