Serious Incident: TAP A320 Thrust Reverser Deploys During Go-Around

A preliminary report was released yesterday by the Danish Accident Investigation Board regarding the serious incident that took place on April 8th.

The Incident

The 12.4 years old aircraft with registration CS-TNV and performing flight TP-754 from Lisbon (Portugal) to Copenhagen (Denmark) with 102 passengers and 7 crew, aborted its landing on runway 30 when the flight crew decided to go around.

The press release states that upon applying Take-off/Go-around thrust, the aircraft at low altitude started to deviate to the left, and the speed over ground dropped sharply from 133 to 120 knots.

The flight crew noticed an indication for engine no. 1 thrust reverser door(s) to be unlocked. Engine nº 1 was at idle thrust. The pilots regained control of the aircraft and established a single engine climb toward a safe altitude. During the climb, the flight crew declared an emergency (“Mayday”) and performed relevant checklists. Air Traffic Control issued radar vectors for a priority landing on runway 22L.

The aircraft landed safely about 20 minutes after the go-around.

Preliminary Report

An external inspection of runway 30 and the grass areas surrounding it was performed by the safety agency.

• No imprints of aircraft ground contact.
• No external damages to the aircraft (including aircraft fuselage, wings, tail and engine nacelles).
• Three out of four thrust reverser doors on engine no. 1 were in the fully deployed position.

On April 18th, the plane flew to Lisbon and is still on the ground.

The investigation into this serious incident will continue with experts looking at various sources of information to determine why the aircraft suffered in-flight thrust reverser deployment. They will look at flight recorders, the engine itself, the weather, simulations, and interviews with crew and others.

Background

When the aircraft is on the ground, the thrust reversers are only used to slow down the speed after landing.

On May 26 1991 a Lauda Air Flight 004 from Bangkok, Thailand to Vienna, Austria entered an uncontrollable dive and broke up after the thrust reverser on the Boeing 767-300ER engine accidentally deployed. There were 213 passengers and 10 crew.

The nose gear on the LATAM Airlines A320 was locked 90 degrees off-centre on March 29th, when it made an emergency landing at the Jose Maria Cordova International Airport. The A320-200 with the registration CC-BAS was climbing out of the runway at the airport when it was supposed to go to Cartagena.

In A320.

There was an engine failure on the flight from Lisbon to Venice. The whole thing was caught on camera by the aviation TV channel. The aircraft was speeding down the runway.

In A320.

On the 1st of February, an Iran Air plane skidded off the runway at Kermanshah Airport, leaving it stranded on the snow-covered ground. The aircraft was performing flight IR283 from Tehran Mehrabad with over 100 passengers and crew on board.

In A319.