ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 147133
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| Date: | Wednesday 20 January 1999 |
| Time: | 16:39 UTC |
| Type: |  Boeing 747-437 |
| Owner/operator: | Air India |
| Registration: | VT-EVA |
| MSN: | 28094/1089 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 336 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | Frankfurt International Airport (FRA/EDDF) -
 Germany
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) |
| Frankfurt International Airport (FRA) | |
| Investigating agency: | BFU |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The Boeing 747 approached Frankfurt's runway 25L at about 16:35 UTC. The approach was conducted with the intention to perform a manual landing under CAT I conditions. The latest ATIS report indicated a visibility of 2500m and few clouds in 300 feet. Frankfurt Approach Control vectored the aircraft to a 9 NM localizer intercept for runway 25L. Apparently the crew did not realise the rapid deterioration of the visibility during the approach caused by fog banks drifting in from the southwest. The additional special met report at 16:35 UTC indicating a decrease in visibility between 800 m RVR and 400 m RVR did not come to the knowledge of the crew. The landing clearance was issued before passing the outer marker (FR) at 16:37 UTC including the current RVR readings for runway 25L - A 300 m, B 550 m, C 375 m - and the advice that still CAT I is in process. During the intermediate approach the crew dealt with a minor hydraulic pump malfunction in the hydraulic system number 4. At approximately 800 feet GND the flaps were set from 25deg to 30deg, the aircraft deviated about 100 feet above the glideslope. The sinkrate increased up to 1450 ft/min and the aircraft went below glideslope at 400 feet GND. According to the flight crew the approach lights were sighted at a height of 300 feet. Because of the high sinkrate the GPWS sounded 8 times and shortly after 16:39 UTC the aircraft touched down unintentionally, approximately 1000 m prior to the touchdown zone on the hard surface of the old runway in front of runway 25L. The pilot-in-command immediately initiated a goaround. Meanwhile the RVR decreased so that at 16:50 UTC CAT II and from 16:54 UTC CAT III was in force. The second landing was performed at 16:58 UTC on runway 25R as an automatic landing under CAT III conditions. Some of the previously damaged main landing gear tires started to burn, but were quickly extinguished by the fire brigade standing by.
In the mishap 22 lights of the approach lighting system were damaged or destroyed. The localizer antenna for runway 07R was broken out at a width of about 16m.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "The ground contact about 1000m in front of the touchdown zone (coming short) was the consequence of an unstabilized final approach which was not discontinued by initiating a go-around procedure in a timely manner. Contributing factors were: 1) The glideslope interception from above; 2) A hydraulic malfunction during the approach requiring to perform the referring checklist; 3) The rapid deterioration of the visibilityl 4) The continuation of the manual approach although the flight crew was not qualified for CAT II/III approaches; 5) Poor crew co-ordination and missing crew resource management."
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 17 December 2009 | VT-EVA | Air India | 0 | Indira Gandhi International Airport (VIDP), Delhi |  |
min |
| Collision with Ground support equipment | ||||||
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 26-Jul-2012 07:21 | harro | Added |
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