A TUI holiday flight descended for almost a minute unnoticed by crew during a go-around manoeuvre as it approached an airport. The ' serious incident' involved a Boeing 737-800 jet flying to Aberdeen from Majorca capital Palma in September 2021.
An Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the crew had become overloaded by a high workload as the aircraft dropped from the manually flown go-around altitude for around a minute before subsequently climbing. The six crew members and 67 passengers were unharmed.
A go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft on final approach. It can either be initiated by the pilot or requested by air traffic control for various reasons, such as an unstabilised approach or an obstruction on the runway.
The AAIB said it was informed two days later that a “serious incident” had occurred and reported both pilots had not flown for some time because of the pandemic.
An official report said: “The aircraft descended for a total of 57 seconds before the climb was re-established. It is likely that the crew allowed the aircraft to descend unnoticed having become overloaded by the high workload during the go-around.
“The high workload was due to a combination of factors: the requirements of flying the go-around manoeuvre manually; a larger than expected increase in thrust that led to a high pitch attitude and rate of climb; and the fact that non-standard go-around instructions were issued by ATC (air traffic control).
“Both pilots had experienced significant periods away from flying during the pandemic.”
The AAIB concluded: “Following this event, safety action was taken by ATC at the airport in relation to go-around procedures; the operator, which issued guidance to its pilots and developed a relevant training package; and by the manufacturer which issued clarification on the behaviour of the autothrust system during go-arounds.”
