Aer Lingus: Plane had serious incident during Belfast landing - report

The plane was carrying 32 passengers and four crew

An Aer Lingus flight to Belfast had a serious incident during landing when it suffered a partial electrical systems failure, a report has found.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said a number of systems dropped off-line, including some needed for landing

The pilots experienced "natural effects of startle and surprise... without a specified procedure to follow", investigators said.

The plane was carrying 32 passengers and four crew.

Emerald Airlines, exclusive operator of Aer Lingus Regional services, said the flight had "experienced an unforeseen technical difficulty" during its approach and had landed safely at Belfast City Airport.

The ATR 72-600 began 19 September 2022 with a flight from Belfast City Airport to Leeds Bradford Airport.

While approaching Leeds Bradford, a master caution message appeared very briefly. The message reappeared after touchdown.

Multiple failures

The flight commander discussed the fault with an engineer who advised "the underlying cause could be difficult to establish".

"Therefore, given the transient, asymptomatic nature of the master cautions and the absence of company engineering support in Leeds, they agreed the crew would operate the aircraft back to Belfast for company engineers to investigate further," the report stated.

The same master caution message occurred on the return flight to Belfast before "multiple failures appeared on the engine warning display" during descent.

Both pilots reported their display as appearing "frozen".

Neither of the plane's landing gear deployed and the crew had to manually disable an electric transformer unit (TRU) to land safely.

Persisting stress

Due to the "sudden magnitude of failure", the flight crew were said to have experienced "a degree of natural startle and surprise, which characteristically affected aspects of their communication and information processing".

"The ambiguous nature, and unclear source, of the technical symptoms caused persisting stress and surprise while the flight crew attempted to re-evaluate the situation," the report continued.

The report said Aer Lingus would adopt a "rule-based structure for situation management" to help crew "manage startle and rebuild situation awareness".

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The aircraft manufacturer, ATR, has taken action to improve the guidance for pilots, as well as other steps.

A spokesperson at Emerald Airlines said the "safety and wellbeing" of passengers was their utmost priority.

"Our dedicated team undergoes rigorous and ongoing training, adhering to industry-standard practices. We have implemented a rule-based structure derived from the manufacturer's pilot training manuals to assist crews in managing the startle effect," she added.