Thomson B738 at Malta on Sep 28th 2017, takeoff with incorrect noseheavy trim setting

Last Update: February 8, 2018 / 17:56:59 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Thomson Airways G-FDZJ, Boeing 737-800 — Thomson Airways G-FDZJ, Boeing 737-800 (Photo credit: Paul's Aircraft and Transport Images / Flickr / License: CC by)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Sep 28, 2017

Classification
Incident

Airline
Thomson Airways

Departure
Malta, Malta

Destination
Manchester, United Kingdom

Aircraft Registration
G-FDZJ

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

A Thomson Airways Boeing 737-800, registration G-FDZJ performing charter flight BY-2453 from Malta (Malta) to Manchester,EN (UK) with 136 passengers and 6 crew, was accelerating for takeoff from Malta's runway 13. After reaching Vr the captain (39, ATPL, 9,699 hours total, 782 hours on type) applied normal backpressure on the control column, however, the aircraft did not rotate. The commander applied more back pressure until the control column was deflected about 75% of its maximum travel, then the aircraft began to slowly rotate and became airborne about 300 meters before the end of the runway. Once the aircraft had settled in the climb, the captain trimmed the control forces out and the aircraft continued to Manchester for a safe landing.

The AAIB released their bulletin concluding the probable cause of the serious incident was:

The aircraft took off with incorrect stabiliser trim set because an incorrect MACTOW was shown on the load sheet. This occurred because the seating position of the passengers was not passed to the handling agent. The handling agent assumed an even distribution of passengers within the cabin, when the actual loading created a forward bias.

The AAIB reported the aircraft was conducting an intersection takeoff from taxiway F departing with flaps 10, V1 was computed at 141 KIAS, Vr at 142 KIAS and V2 at 145 KIAS. The stabilizer trim had been set to 4.5 units based on the load sheet information. Following takeoff the commander trimmed the aircraft to 7 units.

The loadsheet had computed a takeoff weight of 65.6 tons and the MAC for takeoff at 23.4%.

The flight was a charter flight on behalf of cruise ship organisation. The passengers were allocated their seats by the cruise ship operator, who then reported the passenger loading details to the handling agent in Malta, including number of male and female passengers and infants, however, without seat allocation as the flights usually are full. The handling agent assumed an even distribution, however, this assumption was incorrect as the actual passenger seating produced a forward bias. Using the actual passenger distribution the investigation determined the MAC was at 17% instead of the 23.5% resulting from an even distribution.