ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 243883
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| Date: | Thursday 14 November 2019 |
| Time: | 19:50 UTC |
| Type: |  de Havilland Canada DHC-8-402Q Dash 8 |
| Owner/operator: | Flybe |
| Registration: | G-FLBE |
| MSN: | 4261 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2009 |
| Engine model: | Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 63 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor |
| Category: | Serious incident |
| Location: | Over Cornwall, en route Newquay to London Heathrow -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Newquay-Cornwall Airport (NQY/EGHQ) |
| London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Shortly after take off from Newquay Airport, Cornwall, in a strong crosswind, the pilots noticed that both handwheels were offset to the right in order to maintain 'wings level' flight. The aircraft diverted to Exeter Airport where it made an uneventful landing. The aircraft had a crew of four (pilot, co-pilot, and two cabin crew) plus 59 passengers.
The handwheel offset was the result of a break in a left aileron cable that ran along the wing rear spar. In the course of this investigation it was discovered that the right aileron on G-FLBE, and other aircraft in the operator’s fleet, would occasionally not respond to the movement of the handwheels. Non-reversible filters were also fitted to the operator’s aircraft that meant that it was not always possible to reconstruct the actual positions of the control wheel, column or rudder pedals recorded by the Flight Data Recorder.
The aircraft manufacturer initiated safety actions to improve the maintenance of control cables and to determine the extent of the unresponsive ailerons across the fleet.
Three Safety Recommendations are made in this report for the unresponsive aileron and filtering of the control position data.
Safety actions taken by the manufacturer:
● The aircraft manufacturer reviewed the periodic cable inspection procedure and advised that they would amend the procedure to increase the likelihood of identifying cable damage. They also stated that they would issue an All Operators Message to highlight this serious incident and the changes to the inspection procedure.
● The aircraft manufacturer advised that it would provide literature to operators to monitor for unresponsive ailerons using their Flight Data Monitoring Programme.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. AAIB Final Report: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5f7ecf1e8fa8f5545807ad7b/DHC-8-402_G-FLBE_11-20.pdf
2. AAIB Annual Safety Review 2020 pp.116-117: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60d2e72ed3bf7f4bd4662d67/Annual_Safety_Review_2020.pdf
3. https://www.flightglobal.com/safety/unresponsive-aileron-puzzle-emerges-after-dash-8-400-cable-incident/140666.article
4. http://aerossurance.com/safety-management/dash8-q400-control-anomalies/
5. http://avherald.com/h?article=4dde57d8&opt=0
6. https://www.aeroinside.com/item/14987/flybe-dh8d-at-newquay-on-nov-14th-2019-aileron-cable-broke
Media:
DHC-8-402 G-FLBE of Flybe at Manchester International Ringway Airport (MAN/EGCC) on 14-4-2017:Aileron cable failure, in-flight from Newquay Airport to London Heathrow Airport, 14 November 2019https://t.co/ZUP6XlIqaD pic.twitter.com/s33MAA7scv
— AAIB (@aaibgovuk) October 15, 2020
_(33509513520).jpg)
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Oct-2020 21:36 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 15-Oct-2020 21:38 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Departure airport, Embed code] |
| 15-Oct-2020 21:41 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location] |
| 15-Oct-2020 22:37 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source] |
| 18-Oct-2020 16:22 | harro | Updated [Location, Source, Accident report] |
| 22-Oct-2020 08:56 | Aerossurance | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative, Accident report] |
| 22-Oct-2020 17:38 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Source] |
| 26-Jun-2021 22:44 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
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