Lack of training led to injuries on Dragonair flight
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Lack of training led to injuries on Dragonair flight
From South China morning post, hong kong:
A Hong Kong-bound Dragonair flight ran into severe turbulence that injured 12 cabin crew - two of them seriously - partly because the pilot and co-pilot did not know how to use the cockpit weather radar properly, accident investigators have concluded.
The Airbus A300 with 236 passengers on board was midway through a flight from Kota Kinabalu on July 18, 2003, when it was jolted violently for 30 seconds after flying into the path of a tropical storm west of Manila.
Flight attendants were serving meals at the time and some were thrown against the ceiling of the plane as it dipped and lurched. Two suffered serious injuries and three passengers were slightly injured.
A two-year investigation into the incident by the Civil Aviation Department concluded that the 55-year-old captain and his 23-year-old co-pilot - who are not named in the report - might have been able to avoid the storm if they had been trained how to use the weather radar properly.
Although the pilots detected the storm clouds ahead and changed direction shortly before the incident and put the fasten-seatbelt sign on, minimising passenger injuries, they had not adjusted the angle of the radar antenna correctly and changed course too late to avoid the worst of the turbulence.
The report released yesterday describes how the cabin crew were "thrown into the air, some hitting their heads against the ceiling panels then crashing to the floor".
Inspectors also found that a button was pushed to erase the cockpit voice recorder after the plane had been parked at Hong Kong, although they did not discover who pressed the erase button.
The report said that Dragonair should "strengthen the training of flight crew on the use of weather radar for weather avoidance" and that flight crew and maintenance staff should be reminded not to wipe cockpit voice recorders.
However, it praised the actions of the chief purser in the aftermath of the turbulence, saying she "demonstrated commendable competence and professionalism", and the injured flight attendants, who it said "continued to function effectively as a team in a challenging situation".
The release of the accident report was delayed by more than a year after the pilots objected strongly to the CAD's draft report, which they say blamed them for failing to avoid the turbulence.
Backed by the Hong Kong Airline Pilots Association and the Dragonair Pilots Association, they appealed for a reworking of the draft report, which was circulated only to parties involved.
There was no immediate reaction to the report last night by the pilots' union or the association. A Dragonair spokesman said: "Action has been taken since the incident that addresses all the recommendations made in the report."
Key findings
The cause:
Severe turbulence caused by strong convective activity and a tropical depression
Contributing factors:
Weather radar not used properly
Pilot and co-pilot not given enough training to operate weather radar
Recommendations:
Better training of crew on use of weather radar
Authority should step up oversight of training for weather radar and weather avoidance procedures
Pilots and staff should be instructed to preserve cockpit voice recorder data
A Hong Kong-bound Dragonair flight ran into severe turbulence that injured 12 cabin crew - two of them seriously - partly because the pilot and co-pilot did not know how to use the cockpit weather radar properly, accident investigators have concluded.
The Airbus A300 with 236 passengers on board was midway through a flight from Kota Kinabalu on July 18, 2003, when it was jolted violently for 30 seconds after flying into the path of a tropical storm west of Manila.
Flight attendants were serving meals at the time and some were thrown against the ceiling of the plane as it dipped and lurched. Two suffered serious injuries and three passengers were slightly injured.
A two-year investigation into the incident by the Civil Aviation Department concluded that the 55-year-old captain and his 23-year-old co-pilot - who are not named in the report - might have been able to avoid the storm if they had been trained how to use the weather radar properly.
Although the pilots detected the storm clouds ahead and changed direction shortly before the incident and put the fasten-seatbelt sign on, minimising passenger injuries, they had not adjusted the angle of the radar antenna correctly and changed course too late to avoid the worst of the turbulence.
The report released yesterday describes how the cabin crew were "thrown into the air, some hitting their heads against the ceiling panels then crashing to the floor".
Inspectors also found that a button was pushed to erase the cockpit voice recorder after the plane had been parked at Hong Kong, although they did not discover who pressed the erase button.
The report said that Dragonair should "strengthen the training of flight crew on the use of weather radar for weather avoidance" and that flight crew and maintenance staff should be reminded not to wipe cockpit voice recorders.
However, it praised the actions of the chief purser in the aftermath of the turbulence, saying she "demonstrated commendable competence and professionalism", and the injured flight attendants, who it said "continued to function effectively as a team in a challenging situation".
The release of the accident report was delayed by more than a year after the pilots objected strongly to the CAD's draft report, which they say blamed them for failing to avoid the turbulence.
Backed by the Hong Kong Airline Pilots Association and the Dragonair Pilots Association, they appealed for a reworking of the draft report, which was circulated only to parties involved.
There was no immediate reaction to the report last night by the pilots' union or the association. A Dragonair spokesman said: "Action has been taken since the incident that addresses all the recommendations made in the report."
Key findings
The cause:
Severe turbulence caused by strong convective activity and a tropical depression
Contributing factors:
Weather radar not used properly
Pilot and co-pilot not given enough training to operate weather radar
Recommendations:
Better training of crew on use of weather radar
Authority should step up oversight of training for weather radar and weather avoidance procedures
Pilots and staff should be instructed to preserve cockpit voice recorder data
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Read from another HK local newspaper, some part of the flight record was missing when it reach CAD. As i remember, something similar happened before. The investigating authroity got incomplete flight record. Is it illegal to eraae part of the flight record? Or what are they trying to hide?
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If the incident happened abeam MNL, any relevant conversations at the time would have been overwritten after 30 minutes.
Should you for any reason decide to erase the CVR after parking, do remember tht it immediately restarts! Recall the aerobatic 727, when the first words on the CVR were `Now let the B's find out what happened'. Most unfortunate for the crew concerned!
Should you for any reason decide to erase the CVR after parking, do remember tht it immediately restarts! Recall the aerobatic 727, when the first words on the CVR were `Now let the B's find out what happened'. Most unfortunate for the crew concerned!
