Originally Posted by
vilas
Hi guysRecently an A320 after takeoff from Guangzhou had a pressurisation issue (exact snag not known) So they turned back and to avoid overweight landing kept flying for three hours in given area by the ATC. OEM gives the overweight landing procedure but no specific situations in which you do it or not to do it. Normally it's executed in LAND ASAP situation. So may be this wasn't. So can we have some opinions?
HiVilas,
An overweight landing can be done if conditions arise in such a way that the flight cannot continue as planned due to tech problems, sick passengers or any other abnormal condition, it does not necessarily mean a LAND ASAP. If the OVW landing is carried out according to the published procedure an entry will be made on the ATL and a minor engineer inspection will be carried out such as printing the LOAD 15 report and based on that assessing is structural checks are needed or not. It’s not a big deal unless the aircraft was slammed on the runway of course.
With the scenario you are presenting the crew could have turned back, landed back overweight at departure aerodrome (unless landing performance was an issue) and have another aircraft ready to take the pax to destination well within 3 hours…
With my operator if the overweight landing was carried out with a touchdown rate of less than 360ft/min (and 1.7G I believe but I am not sure on this one have to check), only a LOAD 15 report is to be printed and if confirmed the aircraft is good to go.