Avianca A332 at Bogota on Jul 13th 2016, overran runway end during takeoff

Last Update: May 2, 2020 / 21:50:20 GMT/Zulu time

Bookmark this article

Photo of Avianca N279AV, Airbus A330-200 — Avianca N279AV, Airbus A330-200 (Photo credit: tagsplanepics-lhr / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jul 13, 2016

Classification
Incident

Airline
Avianca

Flight number
AV-6

Departure
Bogota, Colombia

Destination
Miami, United States

Aircraft Registration
N279AV

Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-200

ICAO Type Designator
A332

An Avianca Airbus A330-200, registration N279AV performing flight AV-6 from Bogota (Colombia) to Miami,FL (USA) with 254 passengers and 10 crew, departed Bogota's runway 13L but overran the (temporary) end of the runway commencing rotation only past the end of the runway. The aircraft became airborne and continued the flight to Miami for a safe landing about 3:15 hours later. One runway edge light received damage, there were no injuries.

Colombia's Authorities reported that a NOTAM was in effect advising flight crew of work in progress on the runway reducing the available runway length to 2600 meters/8530 feet. However, the aircraft rotated only past the runway end lights resulting in damage to one of the runway end lights. There were no injuries amongst the people on the ground. The occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated by Colombia's Authorities.

While browsing the related archives The Aviation Herald was unable to locate any NOTAM or any Aeronautics Information or any amendment to Aeronautics Information indicating a displaced runway 13L end (displaced runway 31R threshold) reducing the runway length from 3950 meters take off distance normally available to 2600 meters. A reference to 2600 meters is contained in the AIP only for vacating runway 13L at intersection D with respect to instruct flight crew to minimize runway occupation times and have jets aim to vacate the runway at taxiway D.

Reader Ferratini pointed out Supplements provided by the AIP Colombia to identify the exact scenario. On Jun 17th 2016 the AIP Colombia had released supplement AIP_SUP_C25_A18_2016 stating, that the threshold of runway 31R was displaced by 1100 meters between June 18th 2016 and Jul 15th 2016 leaving a runway length of 2700 meters remaining.

On Oct 27th 2016 Colombia's GRIAA reported that the runway threshold 31R was replaced leaving 2700 meters of runway available for departure from runway 13L. N279AV overran the temporary end of the runway and took out one of the frangile temporary runway edge lights. The crew reported they did not hear or notice any impact or anomaly and were only later informed that they had struck a runway end light. Following landing in Miami no damage was found at the landing gear and aircraft surface. The aircraft had been dispatched with an office performance computation for a FLEX takeoff at 177,650kg TOW with V1=128 KIAS, Vr=130 KIAS, V2=136 KIAS and an assumed temperature of +29 degrees C. The crew however selected, based on weather and weight conditions, performed a FLEX takeoff at V1=Vr=143 KIAS with an assumed temperature of 42 degrees C. The occurrence was rated a serious incident, the investigation continues.

Colombia's GRIAA released their final report in Spanish only (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 Spanish 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).

The report concludes the probable causes of the serious incident were:

- Lack of situational awareness by the crew accepting last minute changes delivered by dispatch and entering the data into the FMGS without taking the current runway restrictions into account.

- Non-compliance by the crew with the requirepments by Flight Crew Operating Manuals and Flight Crew Technic Manuals, that all data entered into the FMGS must be monitored and confirmed by both pilots in harmony with the information provided by the company.

Contributing factors were:

- Deficiencies in the workload distribution, consisting of leaving flight calculations onboard, verification and application to a single crew member

- Loss of operational and administrative skills by the first officer who had been offline for longer than 60 days

The GRIAA analysed the crew did not apply last minute changes provided by dispatch to the computations, due to operational disconnection possibly caused by overconfidence into the aircraft commander (61, ATPL), first officer (31, CPL). The crew was pro-efficient with the equipment, but with respect to procedures the first officer showed deficiencies.

A low situational awareness was shown by the crew failing to take into account computation of speeds and the reduced runway length for 13L as NOTAMed. In addition to the last minute changes caused by weight changes and change of weather conditions there was no cross check by the crew.

An erroneous calculation of speeds was evident leading to the late rotation for takeoff.

Related NOTAMs active on Jul 13th 2016:
A2233/16 NOTAMR A1079/16
Q) SKED/QMRHW/IV/NBO/A/000/999/0442N07408W010
A) SKBO B) 1607082036 C) 1610132359
D) H24
E) RWY 13L WIP,EXER CTN
CNS123W SEQUENCE CHECK FOR SKBOYNYX A -- EXPECTED A3999/16 -- RECEIVED A2233/16 CNN014I SKBOYNYX A1079/16 SKBO PART 1 CANCELED

A2232/16 NOTAMR A1143/16
Q) SKED/QMWHW/IV/M/A/000/999/0442N07408W010
A) SKBO B) 1607082026 C) 1610052359
D) H24
E) STRIP RWY 13L/31R PRESENCE MACHINERY, EXER CTN