China Airlines B744 at Taipei on Mar 31st 2014, temporary runway excursion on landing

Last Update: March 23, 2015 / 15:01:22 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of China Airlines B-18721, Boeing 747-400 — China Airlines B-18721, Boeing 747-400 (Photo credit: lkarasawa / Flickr / License: CC by)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 31, 2014

Classification
Accident

Airline
China Airlines

Departure
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Destination
Taipei, Taiwan

Aircraft Registration
B-18721

Aircraft Type
Boeing 747-400

ICAO Type Designator
B744

A China Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter, registration B-18721 performing cargo flight CI-6416 from Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) to Taipei (Taiwan), landed on Taipei's runway 23R at about 20:04L (12:04Z) but veered off the runway with the right hand main landing gear rolling outside the right hand edge of the runway for about 570 feet before the aircraft returned onto the runway and rolled out without further incident. The aircraft sustained damage to its right hand main gear, 5 runway edge lights and a taxiway light were damaged as well.

Taiwan's ASC reported the aircraft's right hand main gear exited the right hand edge of the runway over a distance of 570 feet damaging 5 runway edge lights and one taxiway light in the process. The aircraft's right hand main gear sustained damage. The ASC rated the occurrence an accident and opened an investigation.

On Mar 23rd 2015 the ASC released their final report in Chinese concluding the probable causes of the occurrence were:

- The flight crew selected autoland under good weather condition, and did not notify ATC to confirm if the ILS sensitive area was protected. There was another airplane takeoff and passed over the ILS sensitive area while the CI 6416 was on final landing phase in the same runway, resulting in ILS signal interference.

- When touch-down, the autopilot and navigation system were affected by the interfered ILS signals, making the aircraft deviate from runway centerline. Flight crew did not maintain situational awareness, and manually control the aircraft by disengaging the autopilot when it behaved unexpectedly. As a result, the aircraft veered off the runway.

Findings related to riskF

The standard callout procedure training and Evidence Based Training (EBT) of China Airlines that simulated line operation scenario did not review the effectiveness of the training results according to current training system, and develop a specific scenario that reflects actual line operation risks to enhance the training effectiveness.

- The relevant manuals at China Airlines did not regulate specifically if it is allowed to manually override autopilot and a standard regarding deviation from runway centerline during landing, making prevention of runway veer-off events more difficult.

The ASC reported that the crew consisting of three pilots performed an ILS approach to Taipei's runway 23R employing the autopilot's autoland capability, however, without announcing this very fact to ATC, who thus did not take measures to protect the ILS' critical areas. As result, when the arriving Boeing 747-400 was 4.1nm before touchdown another aircraft was cleared for takeoff, the 747 received landing clearance 0.7nm before touch down. The aircraft was fully stabilized until descending through about 100 feet AGL when the aircraft began to unexpectedly roll to the right reaching a bank angle of 5.6 degrees and touched down on the right side of the runway and the aircraft, not aligned with the runway, continued to veer right until the right main gear departed the runway surface and went over soft ground for about 1400 feet, taking out 6 runway edge and one taxiway light in the process. After the aircraft returned onto the runway the autopilot was disengaged.

The ASC wrote: "Flight crew indicated that the aircraft had no anomalies found except they felt the aircraft had unusual attitude at touchdown. They also checked the aircraft condition after taxi back to the ramp and did not find any abnormalities, therefore not informing the aircraft veered off the runway. The flight occurrence has been confirmed when the airport operational personnel found the damaged runway edge lights and tires track outside the runway during runway patrols at next day."

Ground tracks (Photo: ASC):

Ground radar recording (Photo: ASC):

Metars:
RCTP 311400Z 27003KT 4200 BR FEW010 BKN035 21/19 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2982
RCTP 311330Z VRB02KT 5000 BR FEW010 BKN035 21/19 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2982
RCTP 311300Z 01003KT 330V030 5000 BR FEW010 BKN035 21/18 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2981
RCTP 311230Z 08006KT 5000 BR FEW010 BKN035 22/18 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2980
RCTP 311200Z 06004KT 010V130 5000 BR FEW010 BKN035 22/18 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2980
RCTP 311130Z 12005KT 070V190 6000 FEW010 BKN035 22/18 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2980
RCTP 311100Z 12005KT 6000 FEW010 BKN035 22/18 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2980
RCTP 311030Z 03003KT 6000 FEW010 BKN022 BKN090 22/18 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2981
RCTP 311000Z 13003KT 7000 FEW010 BKN025 BKN090 22/18 Q1008 NOSIG RMK A2979
RCTP 310930Z 36002KT 7000 -RA FEW010 BKN018 BKN090 21/18 Q1009 NOSIG RMK A2980
RCTP 310900Z 33006KT 7000 -RA FEW006 BKN014 BKN110 21/19 Q1008 NOSIG RMK A2979