Titan B752 at Freetown on Dec 13th 2013, continued approach despite "PULL UP" EGPWS warning

Last Update: August 15, 2014 / 13:23:03 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Dec 13, 2013

Classification
Report

Flight number
GBQ-3521

Aircraft Registration
G-ZAPX

Aircraft Type
Boeing 757-200

ICAO Type Designator
B752

A Titan Airways Boeing 757-200 on behalf of Gambia Bird, registration G-ZAPX performing flight GBQ-3521 from London Gatwick,EN (UK) to Freetown (Sierra Leone) with 145 passengers and 7 crew, was on a VOR approach to Freetown's runway 30. Previously the crew had requested several times to be cleared down to 2000 feet and was now descending rapidly at about 1900 fpm to re-acquire the vertical profile. The crew extended the speed brakes at 1450 feet AGL, extended the gear at 185 KIAS and selected flaps as soon as speed permitted. At 1000 feet the speed brakes were fully extended. At 500 feet AGL the EGPWS sounded "SINK RATE" (155 KIAS/Vref+22, 1900 fpm sink rate) and at 350 feet AGL "PULL UP". The captain reported later that they were visual with the runway and close to the vertical profile so he decided to continue the approach, at 290 feet the landing flaps were deployed, the sink rate reduced to below 1000 fpm below 150 feet AGL, the aircraft touched down at 148 KIAS with speed brakes still fully extended.

The British AAIB released their bulletin stating: "The commander (41, ATPL, 5,300 hours total, 700 hours on type) stated that it was clear that the approach was unstable and that he should have flown a go-around."
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Dec 13, 2013

Classification
Report

Flight number
GBQ-3521

Aircraft Registration
G-ZAPX

Aircraft Type
Boeing 757-200

ICAO Type Designator
B752

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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