Ryanair B738 at Bergerac on Jan 29th 2015, descended below minimum safe altitude on NDB approach
Last Update: September 7, 2020 / 14:09:25 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jan 29, 2015
Classification
Incident
Airline
Ryanair
Departure
London Stansted, United Kingdom
Destination
Bergerac, France
Aircraft Registration
EI-EMK
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800
ICAO Type Designator
B738
Airport ICAO Code
LFBE
The French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin that the occurrence was rated an incident and is being investigated by the BEA.
On Jun 26th 2020 the BEA released their final report in French (Editorial note: to serve the purpose of global prevention of the repeat of causes leading to an occurrence an additional timely release of all occurrence reports in the only world spanning aviation language English would be necessary, a French only release does not achieve this purpose as set by ICAO annex 13 and just forces many aviators to waste much more time and effort each in trying to understand the circumstances leading to the occurrence. Aviators operating internationally are required to read/speak English besides their local language, investigators need to be able to read/write/speak English to communicate with their counterparts all around the globe).
On Sep 7th 2020 the BEA also released their English translation of the final report /(editorial note: the following summary is based on the French report translated by The Aviation Herald in June 2020).
The report concludes the probable causes of the incident were:
The incident occurred while the aircraft performed an NDB approach without DME, probably without external visual references.
The first preparation of the approach was probably incomplete or imprecise.
Thus, the clearance by ATC although concerning the approach procedure the crew believed they had prepared, seemed to have put their prepared actions into question and required re-programming of the FMS.
This late modification did not permit the crew to agree on the guidance modes to be used. This resulted in confusion of the captain as to the horizontal trajectory to be followed by the aircraft. Confronted with these doubts, rather than opting for waiting circuit or return to basic control of the aircraft, this state of confusion led him to request an early descent below the safety altitude.
Contributing factors were:
- concerns by the captain, in particular related to extreme noise pollution in his headset and his doubts about the involvement of the first officer
- the first officer's weak experience with this type of approach which caused at the very least the failure to detect inconsistencies of the instructions issued by the captain
The following factors contributed to the descent below minimum safe altitude for nearly two minutes until the EGPWS alerted "TERRAIN! TERRAIN!" as well as the triggering of the controller's minimum safe altitude warning:
- the greatly reduced situational awareness of both pilots
- the ATC controllers lack of monitoring of the aircraft's trajectory ignoring the NDB procedures
- the absence of an altitude alert system at Bergerac Airport (or its remote control) and failing this the lack of urgent coordination procedures between Bergerac and Aquitane Approach Control in case of a minimum safe altitude warning
The BEA reported the aircraft was on approach to Bergerac cleared to descend to FL070 when the controller (Aquitane Approach) queried whether they wanted to perform an RNAV approach, the first officer answered "No ... Yes" and requested the weather conditions at the aerodrome. The controller subsequently queried again whether they wanted to perform an RNAV approach, this time the first officer answered they wanted to perform an NDB approach, the controller advised to expect the NDB Y approach for runway 28, cleared them direct to the NDB BGC and cleared them to descend to 2500 feet MSL. The aircraft overflew the NDB at 2723 feet MSL with the autopilot modes LNAV and V/S active. The autopilot subsequently levelled the aircraft off at 2500 feet and 185 KIAS, 3 seconds later the crew extended the flaps to 5 degrees. While the aircraft initiated a left turn on LNAV, the first officer selected a vertical speed of -900 fpm, later -1200 fpm and a target altitude of 900 feet and again descreased the rated of descent gradually to 300 fpm. The aircraft rolled into another left turn at 1447 feet MSL and 175 KIAS, the crew radioed they were established inbound, the aircraft however was 65 degrees off the final approach course at that point. Approach control handed the aircraft off to Bergerac tower.
While the crew is changing frequency to Bergerac Tower, without yet communication with the tower and no longer communicating with approach, the approach controller received a minimum safe altitude warning for the aircraft. Several seconds later the crew contacted tower at 1240 feet MSL and were cleared to continue the approach.
24 seconds after establishing radio contact with tower the crew received an EGPWS alert "Terrain! Terrain!", more than 8nm from the runway threshold, still in the left turn at 1054 feet MSL and 842 feet AGL, the autopilot was tracking modes LNAV and ALT ACQ. 2 seconds later the TOGA button is pressed at 1018 feet MSL, 797 feet AGL, 164 KIAS and -986 fpm. At the same time EGPWS sounded "Pull Up!"
A second minimum safe altitude warning activated on the approach controller's desk. The crew announced on tower frequency they were going around, the aircraft climbed to 4000 feet MSL, contacted approach again and position for another NDB Y approach to runway 28, which was without further event. The aircraft landed safely.
The BEA analysed, that the ILS and DME were not available on the day of the occurrence due to maintenance works. The captain consulted with the booklet provided by the operator and found no mention of the RNAV/GNSS approach procedures and concluded the procedures were not permitted by the operator. Therefore the crew performed a briefing for the NDB approach near the top of descent. The captain considered that the NDB procedure was appropriate but did not specify whether he wanted NDB Z or NDB Y. The controller advised NDB Y approach, which required the first officer to reprogram the FMS. The results of the reprogramming did not satisfy the captain, who then announced he would fly the approach in HDG and V/S autopilot modes. He remained unaware of the first officer's lack of experience with this type of approach, after passing BGC LNAV and V/S modes were engaged. The aircraft turned to join a distant track consistent with entering the hold at BGC with a direct entry. The autopilot initiated a second left turn again consistent with a hold pattern rather than joining the final approach course.
In this turn the captain requested the first officer to descend, the first officer initiate a descent to 900 feet MSL at 900 fpm, then 1200 fpm. This descent below the minimum safe sector altitude as well as the descent before being aligned with the runway extended center line led the aircraft to leave the procedurally protected airspace and descend below minimum safe sector as well as below the procedural altitude.
While still in the turn the captain probably detected an anomaly and instructed the first officer to reduce the descent. The first officer reduced the rate of descent to 300 fpm, which exposed a fault, when the ALT ACQ mode activated the rate of descent automatically increased again leading to the EGPWS "Terrain! Terrain!" alert. The first officer aborted the approach, at the same time the EGPWS "Pull Up!" alert activated. The aircraft had been below minimum safe altitudes for nearly 2 minutes in instrument meteorologic conditions, probably without external visual references.
The BEA analysed that the first officer believed he had programmed the NDB Y procedure (the investigation did not determine whether NDB Y or NDB Z were present in the database and were programmed), following the ATC instructions he needed to reprogram the approach procedure which seems to indicate the approach procedure NDB Y was either not initially selected or had been selected incorrectly. NDB Z required the use of the DME, which was not available.
The LNAV mode was contrary to the instruction by the captain, who instructed to use HDG and V/S modes.
The target altitude of 900 feet MSL corresponded to the MDA rounded up to the next 100 feet.
Metars:
LFBE 291530Z AUTO 20014KT 5000 RA BR BKN010 OVC030 09/08 Q0993
LFBE 291500Z AUTO 21014KT 180V240 8000 -RA OVC010/// ///TCU 09/08 Q0994
LFBE 291430Z AUTO 22013KT 190V250 6000 RA OVC012/// ///TCU 09/07 Q0996
LFBE 291400Z AUTO 22014KT 5000 RA BR BKN012 BKN017 OVC033 09/07 Q0997
LFBE 291330Z AUTO 23012KT 200V260 4900 RA BR BKN012 BKN020 OVC027 09/08 Q0999
LFBE 291300Z AUTO 23011KT 9999 -RA BKN011/// BKN016/// OVC021/// ///TCU 09/08 Q1000
LFBE 291230Z AUTO 24014KT 4900 -RA BR OVC011/// ///TCU 09/08 Q1001
LFBE 291200Z AUTO 26010KT 4500 RA BR BKN011/// BKN017/// OVC047/// ///TCU 09/08 Q1002
LFBE 291130Z AUTO 24016G30KT 210V270 8000 -RA BKN016/// BKN026/// OVC042/// ///TCU 09/07 Q1003
LFBE 291100Z AUTO 23011KT 200V260 9000 -RA SCT023/// BKN036/// BKN042/// ///TCU 09/07 Q1004
LFBE 291030Z AUTO 24011KT 210V270 9999 RA FEW009/// SCT014/// BKN025/// ///TCU 09/07 Q1004
LFBE 291000Z AUTO 25009KT 220V280 6000 RA SCT013/// BKN019/// OVC030/// ///TCU 09/08 Q1005
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jan 29, 2015
Classification
Incident
Airline
Ryanair
Departure
London Stansted, United Kingdom
Destination
Bergerac, France
Aircraft Registration
EI-EMK
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800
ICAO Type Designator
B738
Airport ICAO Code
LFBE
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
Article source
You can read 2 more free articles without a subscription.
Subscribe now and continue reading without any limits!
Read unlimited articles and receive our daily update briefing. Gain better insights into what is happening in commercial aviation safety.
Send tip
Support AeroInside by sending a small tip amount.
Related articles
Fleet type match
Ryanair B738 at Brussels on Feb 24th 2024, nose wheel fractured on landing
A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-DYC performing flight FR-9719 from Rome Ciampino (Italy) to Brussels Charleroi (Belgium), landed on…
Fleet type match
Ryanair B738 and Delta A333 at Barcelona on Jul 2nd 2022, A333 on departure overflew B738
A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-DYO performing flight FR-9366 from Barcelona,SP (Spain) to Bologna (Italy) with 166 passengers and 6 crew,…
Fleet type match
Ryanair B38M near Faro on Dec 12th 2023, engine problem
A Ryanair Boeing 737-8 MAX, registration EI-HGR performing flight FR-1249 from Manchester,EN (UK) to Tenerife South,CI (Spain) with 164 people on…
Fleet type match
Ryanair B38M near Krakow on Nov 26th 2023, pilot incapacitated
A Ryanair Boeing 737-8 MAX, registration EI-IHW performing flight FR-3472 from London Luton,EN (UK) to Rzeszow (Poland), was enroute at FL370 about…
Fleet type match
Ryanair B738 at Pescara on Nov 25th 2023, lightning strike
A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-EKG performing flight FR-5471 from Bucharest (Romania) to Pescara (Italy), was on approach to Pescara when…
Newest articles
ABX B762 at Milwaukee on Apr 17th 2024, bird strike
An ABX Air Boeing 767-200 freighter, registration N650GT performing flight GB-2042 from Cincinnati,KY to Milwaukee,WI (USA) with 2 crew, landed on…
Cem DH8D at Johannesburg on Apr 18th 2024, engine failure
A Cemair de Havilland Dash 8-400, registration ZS-DHA performing flight 5Z-518 from Johannesburg to Kimberly (South Africa), was climbing out of…
Subscribe today
Are you researching aviation incidents? Get access to AeroInside Insights, unlimited read access and receive the daily newsletter.
Pick your plan and subscribePartner
A new way to document and demonstrate airworthiness compliance and aircraft value. Find out more.
ELITE Simulation Solutions is a leading global provider of Flight Simulation Training Devices, IFR training software as well as flight controls and related services. Find out more.
Your regulation partner, specialists in aviation safety and compliance; providing training, auditing, and consultancy services. Find out more.
AeroInside Blog
Popular aircraft
Airbus A320Boeing 737-800
Boeing 737-800 MAX
Popular airlines
American AirlinesUnited
Delta
Air Canada
Lufthansa
British Airways