A report has found that a Mexico to Manchester flight was forced to wait as another aircraft touched down, even though the crew had declared a mayday fuel emergency.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) found the Tui-operated Boeing 787-8 aircraft experienced a “serious incident” after a missed approach due to adverse weather conditions on 21 December 2023.
Following an overnight flight from Cancun, Mexico, “high wind conditions” in the north of the UK diverted the Tui jet from its scheduled landing at Manchester Airport.
An attempted diversion to East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire was denied because of capacity constraints, so the aircraft continued to Birmingham Airport.
On approach to Birmingham, the aircraft encountered windshear – a sudden change in wind speed or direction – and aborted the landing attempt.
The Tui flight then declared "Mayday, mayday, mayday fuel".
Flight data monitoring found that Birmingham cleared another aircraft to land ahead of it, adding 25 nautical miles to its holding pattern.
With 291 passengers and 10 crew on board, the flight landed at Birmingham after its second approach below the final reserve fuel level.
According to the AAIB report, the crew had loaded an additional 984kg of fuel to account for the strong winds forecast in the UK.
Both East Midlands and Birmingham Airport also investigated the incident.
East Midlands said that “the channels used to establish what the airport could accept had not resulted in a clear and effective understanding” and clarified that the airport’s Centre Control Room (CCR) was responsible for communications.
Birmingham's internal investigation found that at the time the crew declared a “mayday”, there were “multiple aircraft in the approach sequence”.
The additional controller due to the adverse weather was also “faced with a complex and high workload scenario” which “resulted in the opportunity to prioritise G-TUIB while repositioning HA-LZY being missed”.
The AAIB’s report concluded: “The serious incident was the result of strong winds generating difficult conditions at the time of the arrival of the flight into the UK.”
It added: “Safety action has been taken to clarify the process for determining and communicating airport capacity for diversions and for the prioritisation of aircraft that have declared an emergency.”
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