Avion Express A320 off-piste at Vilnius
 

No need to wait for that tug to pull you out of the mud when you have Joe Patroni in the LH seat:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5188fab26d.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ea7f2e448f.jpg

Is that an actual photo of this ? No spoilers up on the starboard wing...............or maybe just not visible on the dark side of that photo.

But they veered right ?

If you zoom in you can see the spoilers are up on that wing, starting just outboard of the outer flap fairing working back towards the engine. It matches the other wing. I think it’s just the cloud of dirt and dust creating an illusion.

From the photo, one possible explanation is that a cat was at the controls and was distracted by the opportunity to chase the large bird visible in the foreground.

Tea no biscuit session with the chief pilot?

ATC, weather info and video:

huge yaw at 1:20... almost going sideways

Awesome airmanship and safety culture.
I think the crew should be awarded for "avoiding the terminal and saving 500 lives".

There is an interesting thread elsewhere on this fine website detailing their terms and conditions and general operation. Make up your mind as to whether this is a career airline. Could be just bad luck.....

Avion Express LY- flying with their callsign outfit Nordvind.
Avion Express Malta 9H- are callsign South Wind

This LY- aircraft sustained substantial damage to the underside of the centre fuselage and wing flaps.


Avion have been operating in the UK for many years flying ACMI summer work for TUI, BA Euro, Easyjet and previously for Thomas Cook Airlines UK, Monarch?, and Titan.

I cannot like this comment more, proper belly laugh.
Thanks muchly!

OB

Wondering if there will be any reaction at all from Lithuanian aviation authorities. Or maybe it will just get reregistered in Malta and all is good!

Pay2Fly at its finest

SLF here, but question to the experts: after having experienced such a substantial detour through unpaved area, throwing up mud and whatever - would you continue at your own power? I'd be worried about any ingested mud, gravel, ice etc and rather shut down the engines? Furthermore I'd be worried about any damage to other aircraft parts, landing gear, hydraulics that might have a substantial impact on the ability of controlling the aircraft whilst taxyiing and / or increase the damage to the aircraft by taxiing to the stand?

Yes… especially engines could be damaged. Possibly with a fire outcome.

A picture on the aviation herald shows clear damage to the underside. It seems to be to the wing-body fairing, so at least not primary structure: https://avherald.com/h?article=5147d9d5&opt=0

I would think the dirt going through the engines will be way more expensive.

video of the off-road trip. Remarkable landing gear side load performance:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1754107432865800319

Nice drift…must be a rally driver.

Should've kept the right pedal in, would've been close to making that middle taxiway.

If Avherald is to be believed, the aircraft dropped 1200 feet in 2 seconds:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1b73626166.jpg

I suspect not.

Scandinavian flick?


Little more stagger on the outside tyre?

Thought that myself. On the full video it seems to enter a very hard turn to the right in a modest crosswind and a 5/5/5) runway. The rest is simply survival.

My guess is that the transponder sends out the pressure altitude until there is weight on wheels. As Vilnius is at 200m/600 ft, this would account for half of the drop. A low pressure area could do the rest.

Exactly that. Both facts that seem to have passed AH by. It would have been better to have no graphic at all than the misleading one - the actual touchdown appears to have been near the point labelled "FL011".

Slush On The Runway Margins
 

From the X video all looks well until shortly after mainwheel touch down. He starts out fairly well right of centreline but then yaws quickly to the right as if the right main gear has gone into slush on the runway margin. Holding full reverse as he crosses the grass is guaranteed to trash the underbelly. With all that soft grass left ahead, stopping was not an issue. I imagine the main gear struts have seen some significant side-forces beyond design limits.

In what world is it safe to continue taxy to the terminal?

in P2F world mate

They probably get a bonus for arriving at the gate on time, but they forgot to include a clause on the condition of the aircraft.

Oh good! So I wasn't the only one baffled by them carrying on and taxiing in as if nothing's just happened.

To the self-declared SLF above: Yes, I wouldn't move that aircraft an inch further until someone came and took a look to at least guarantee that everything's (mostly) in place and there's no leaking going on

I hate to spoil the "have a pop at the new generation" thing, but I know of a case in the '80s where, not only did the crew not admit they'd been off piste, but due to low viz, the tracks on the grass were only discovered by Ops in the morning, when the aircraft was tucked up on stand, looking a bit sorry for itself. There's nothing new under the sun...

I wonder if the autobrake was selected to Max and subsequently grabbed more on one side leading to the loss of directional control?

Max autobrake? Thats only for RTO

Was it a training flight? Possibly cadet training?

Could have been but the TRI/TRE is in the other seat with duplicate controls.

Maybe this was a crosswind landing, and they landed the nose gear while cock-eyed before pushing straight with the rudder ?


(my added word; we don't ever land with max autobrake.)

I stand to be corrected but am fairly sure that Airbus FBW uses directional information from the ADIRS etc. to modify the auto-braking to stay straight. So tyres or brakes losing grip or whatever would not cause this sort of deviation.

It could have been a faulty reverser on the port engine maybe.

Who knows, maybe mx came on and cleared it. "Could not duplicate. Ops check good, OK for cont. service."

There seems to be symmetric reverse from the forward video.... and lots of it. If that was a P2F cadet landing then the trainer should not have let the aircraft stray so far towards the slush on the runway margin, as the result was entirely predictable

I once had an autobrake mishap on landing with autobrake low + idle planned. Clean dry runway... As the nosewheel touched down there was a sharp grab of one brake snatching and immediately releasing. This was followed by a BSCU 2 ECAM and the autobrake dropping out. The runway was nice and long and there was no upset to directional control. Rev Idle was held to 70kts where we tried the brakes which worked fine, as did the NWS. On inspection there was a flat spot on one of the tyres so draw your own conclusions about what happened. Playing back the QAR gave no indication of fault, neither did the FDR. Engineers changed both BSCUs as a precaution. I think the Airbus logic may have prevented a double main-tyre blowout that day, and possible runway excursion.

Or worst of all...

"BITE check performed. No faults found."

I suspect the outside of the aircraft wasn’t the only thing that was brown…

Agree, but selection of MAX inadvertently is not inhibited.

I have personally seen it inadvertently selected and used on landing on two occasions (without damage but with huge pilot eyes from extremely rapid decel) on A330.

And once it featured in an A320 accident where selection of Max Autobrake was selected intentionally after Flap Ext Abnormal and the aircraft departed the runway after 5 seconds in a very similar manner to this accident aircraft.

As far as I am aware of (FCOM is not specific about it) Max Autobrake will not arm in-flight on more recent MSNs, I.e. Enhanced onwards.