Cebu Pacific A320 at Davao on Jun 2nd 2013, runway excursion
Last Update: October 22, 2015 / 22:27:40 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jun 2, 2013
Classification
Accident
Cause
Runway excursion
Airline
Cebu Pacific Air
Flight number
5J-971
Departure
Manila, Philippines
Destination
Davao, Philippines
Aircraft Registration
RP-C3266
Aircraft Type
Airbus A320
ICAO Type Designator
A320
Airport ICAO Code
RPMD
The aircraft was still in its final position in the morning of Tuesday (Jun 4th), the aircraft was moved off the runway and to the apron Tuesday afternoon.
The airline reported the aircraft veered off the runway while landing in Davao in heavy downpour.
Sources within the airline claimed that the runway lights failed briefly while the aircraft was on short final causing the runway excursion.
On Jun 4th the airline added, that the aircraft was evacuated 15 minutes after coming to a stop. Both engines had made ground contact following the nose gear collapse however, both engines were severely damaged, likely beyond repair, and emitted smoke. The crew however quickly established that the engines were not on fire. Due to the tilted position of the aircraft the crew anticipated that an emergency evacuation would cause injuries, assessed the situation and then decided to perform a precautionary disembarkation via the left hand front door and evacuation slide.
The CAA Philippines (CAAP) reported on Tuesday (Jun 4th), that there was no evidence of a technical malfunction of the aircraft prior to landing. There is no evidence of a malfunction of airport facilities, too, the crew was able to see the runway despite the heavy rain. The aircraft touched down normally but veered right off the runway and came to a stop about 1100 meters down the runway between taxiways A4 and A3 during a heavy downpour at 19:05L. The CAAP vowed that should the airline recovery teams not manage to move the aircraft off the runway by Tuesday afternoon, the CAAP would take over, the runway would become available by Tuesday at the latest.
On Jun 6th 2013 sources within CAAP reported, that not all damaged runway edge lights could be explained with the accident of the Cebu Pacific Airbus A320. At least two broken runway edge lights were damaged by another aircraft, supposed to have been another Cebu Pacific Turbo Prop aircraft landing about 5 minutes prior to the accident aircraft. The pilots of that Turboprop did not report the occurrence, there was damage to the wheels found however. Had the incident been reported, it may have averted the later accident, but at least helped to assess the situation on the ground more accurately.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) released their summary of the final report concluding the probable causes of the accident were:
- Pilots’ lack of event proficiency in low-visibility non-precision approach and landing at night. Human Factor. Pilot Error. Psychological (Psychomotor skill, recent experience).
The PIC as pilot flying Pilot Flying (PF) failed to maintain a stabilized landing approach (under precipitation) until below the MDA so that moments before the touchdown (precipitation becoming heavy), the aircraft was still at left of runway centerline with the FO calling (to align) RIGHT which was done by PF but having lost grasp of the centerline, the correction exceeded the centerline with FO calling ( to correct toward the unlighted center ) LEFT but the aircraft already touched down aligned to the right edge lights that was misconstrued by the PF as the center lights (based on the repeated expressions of the PF during the landing roll until the aircraft has fully stopped ).
- The emergency procedure for go-around was necessary but not utilized. Human Factor. Pilot Error. Psychological (Learning, Emotion/ Mental-Narrowed Attention)
The pilot probably was experiencing Narrowed Attention due to apprehension by being acutely conscious of the difficulty ahead ( bad weather ). Added to this was his proficiency status ( one flight to Davao in last 3 months ) and at confusion to notice things in the periphery of his attention i.e., to execute a go-around and make another approach well-prepared on the techniques with lower precipitation level.
Contributory Factors
- Adverse weather condition. Environmental factor. Natural Environment
The weather condition severely affected the judgment and decision-making of the PIC even prior to the approach to land. Heavy rainfall obscured the horizontal visibility of the pilots preventing a clear view of the runway.
- Absence of runway center lights. Environmental factor. Man-made Environment (Aerodrome)
The PIC misconstrued the edge lights as the runway center lights. Low-visibility approaches require that these lights be present to help guide the pilots toward the runway center.
- Inadequate CRM procedures. Human factor. Psychological. (Training)
Standard and non-standard call-outs and responses are the hallmarks of an effective cockpit/CRM environment. There were lapses, omissions and contradictory words employed during the landing approach.
- Inadequate pilot re-currency training methods. Human Factor. Psychological. (Training)
Missed approach procedures during low-visibility non-precision approaches were seldom practiced during the re-currency training of the pilots. The over-use of baseline airports with runway center lights deprived the pilots the opportunity to hone their instrument flying skills in basic airports where they usually operate that has no center lights.
- Lack of policy on the advisory role of air traffic controllers ( ATC ). Human Factor. Psychological. (Training)
During adverse weather conditions the ATC has no participation in the safety decisions which would require runway closure during critical aerodrome conditions especially in environmental conditions below runway visual minima.
The CAAP reported the aircraft was on a VOR/DME approach to runway 23, the first officer was pilot flying. ATC informed there were moderate to heavy rainshowers over the aerodrome. While commencing the procedure turn at 2000 feet a power failure occurred in the city, the automatic change over system at the aerodrome took over within 2 seconds, the CAAP added: "without adverse effect on FLT 971 that was still making procedure
turn at 2000ft."
On final approach about 5nm out the captain took control of the aircraft. While descending through 470 feet (MDA) the precipitation started and the wind screen wipers were set to low. Just prior to touch down the downpour became heavy and the wipers were switched to high. The aircraft touched down about 30 meters/100 feet prior to the marked touch down point and to the right of the runway center line near the runway edge lights, the aircraft was crabbing 3 degrees to the right and continued to drift towards the right, the right main gear went off paved surface about 129 meters past touchdown, the nose gear departed the paved surface of the runway 145 meters past touchdown, the left main gear about 511 meters past touchdown. With all gear on soft ground the aircraft rolled for about 330 meters obviously attempting to return to the runway, crossed a taxiway and came to a full stop with all gear on soft ground with the left wing tip still over the runway surface about 845 meters past touchdown.
The crew immediately shut down both engines, flaps, spoilers, reversers were still configured. The battery was inadvertently turned off. About 15 minutes after coming to a stop the left forward emergency slide was opened upon instruction by the captain and the passengers disembarked the aircraft via that slide, the last passenger exited 20 minutes after the slide was opened.
Metars (no Metars were reported at 11:00Z and later):
RPMD 021000Z 14002 9999 TS BKN015 CB SCT090 BKN290 29/26 Q1008 CB SW-SE AND OVHD DIST PCPN NW LITS N
RPMD 020900Z 18006 9999 FEW015 CB SCT090 BKN290 30/26 Q1007 CB NE
RPMD 020800Z 18002 9999 SCT015 CB SCT090 BKN290 30/26 Q1006 CB ALQUADS
RPMD 020700Z 18008KT 9999 SCT015CB SCT090 BKN290 31/25 Q1006 CB NW-E/SW DIST PCPN NE
RPMD 020600Z 18008KT 9999 VCRA SCT015CB SCT090 BKN290 32/26 Q1007 DIST PCPN NE CB N-E/SW-NW
RPMD 020500Z 22006KT 9999 SCT015CB BKN290 32/26 Q1007 CB NE-E/SW-W
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jun 2, 2013
Classification
Accident
Cause
Runway excursion
Airline
Cebu Pacific Air
Flight number
5J-971
Departure
Manila, Philippines
Destination
Davao, Philippines
Aircraft Registration
RP-C3266
Aircraft Type
Airbus A320
ICAO Type Designator
A320
Airport ICAO Code
RPMD
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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