"A EUROCYPRIA pilot breached safety procedures by failing to complete pre-flight checks on a plane that was damaged during landing when it partly missed the runway, it emerged yesterday.
No passengers were hurt during the botched landing; however under other conditions such an oversight could have spelled disaster.
The oversight, described as a "serious incident" by an official at the airline, occurred on November 9 at Katowice airport, Poland, when a Boeing 737 carrying around 170 passengers, partly missed the runway and sustained damage to the front landing gear, reflectors and headlamps.
The pilot reported that he had mistaken the leftmost strip of lights for central runway lights. However, the Polish Accident Investigation Board report shows that the plane commenced landing with insufficient visibility. The report states that the minimum "Runway Visual Range" (RVR) for was 550 metres but due to fog, RVR on the day was only 350 metres.
Captain Xanthos Yerolemou, Safety Officer at Eurocypria said yesterday: "Probably one of the reasons he missed was because of low RVR".
After landing, one of the landing crew inspected the left side of the plane that had missed the runway. However he failed to check the rest of the plane which had sustained damage during the landing, the report said.
Had this damage been reported, the plane would not have been allowed to fly, Yerolemou said. "This was the result of human error. If you have reason to believe you have left the runway, then you have to inspect the aircraft. It seems they did not check the right side because they believed it was okay,” he said.
Asked if he thought the inspecting pilot had been negligent, Yerolemou said "Yes. In fact the walk-around must be done before every flight, so they had not completed their tasks."
Alarmingly, the Katowice ground crew had even reported the broken light to the captain of the onward flight. However, said Yerolemou, the captain could not understand the message, because of the language barrier. He therefore sought clarification from the landing crew pilot who had conducted the checks. When asked if he knew of a broken light, he replied that he did not.
Eurocypria has now completed its preliminary report on the incident which has been shown to Cypriot, Polish and European Aviation bodies. The company will decide on disciplinary proceedings soon. "We are looking very seriously into the matter, and dismissal is a possibility."
Lucas Hadjiconstantinou, an electrical engineer with Cyprus Airways, said "Ninety per cent of the time that this type of damage occurs, there will be no incident, and serious accidents are unlikely. However, as Concorde showed, small pieces of debris can cause crashes." In 2000 a Concorde crashed after a 45cm by 3 cm strip of metal tore the plane's tires, which in turn struck and ignited the fuel tanks.
Andreas Georgiades, President of Aircraft Engineers International, said yesterday "The basic issue is that there was an incident and it was not properly reported." Asked about consequences of such damage, Georgiades was clear.
"Any defect, however small, definitely endangers the airplane and crew. You have to report it in a technical log and have certified mechanics sign it off. What people don't understand is that every incident reduces the safety margin, and if this is eroded over time it can end in disaster."
So, could this type of incident happen again? Giorgiades thinks so. "With current EU aviation safety regulations, I would say yes. Pilots are under increasing pressure to operate their planes." He explains that this problem highlights a broader issue of commercial pressures on airlines. Both He and Hadjiconstantinou agree that completely safe procedures are expensive, with lower burdens feeling the pressure more.
While rumours of cover ups and cost-cutting manoeuvres abound on pilots’ web forums, such as
www.pprune.org, the facts suggest this incident was much like the “perfect storm”. Poor weather, inadequate infrastructure, lack of communication and a failure to follow rules combined to risk hundreds of lives.
However Yerolemou was keen to stress that this was exceptional, that Eurocypria has an excellent safety record, follows all safety manuals and laws and been successfully audited by the European Aviation Standards Authority"
In the Cyprus Mail 1st January 10 by Patrick Dewhurst.