A passenger plane skidded for more than half a mile along a runway at one of Ireland's busiest airports after landing, it was revealed today.
Aer Arann's Manchester to Shannon service was carrying 21 passengers and four crew when the drama unfolded last month.
The plane's nose collapsed on landing before the aircraft veered out of control, demolished a sign and then careered off the runway. It eventually came to rest on a grass verge.
Terrified onlookers reported seeing smoke or steam billowing from the front of the 17-year-old aircraft as it scraped along the runway on July 17.
Air accident investigators found the plane's nose wheel had collapsed and jammed the controls.
An initial report by the Air Accident Investigation Unit revealed the plane had traveled 1,200m.
It said: 'The flight crew had no directional control of the aircraft from the initial runway impact to the final stopping point, as the nose wheel steering was inoperative due to the collapsed nose wheel and the rudder was jammed in the mid position.'
Flight EI3601's propeller was smashed and a sign on the runway was destroyed as it crashed through.
The investigators discovered the flight crew were unable to shut down the engines during the ordeal by normal use of levers.
Instead, they failed and the crew were forced to pulling emergency fire handles to cut off power.
Initial inquiries found the aircraft's landing wheel had been forced in the wrong direction back into the fuselage on the second attempt at landing, causing significant damage to the underneath of the cockpit.
This in turn caused problems with controls inside the plane. The right nose wheel also came off during the incident.
The investigation found there were turbulent conditions at the time of landing, which are expected to be a significant focus of the continuing inquiries.
Different flight crew, on the same aircraft the previous evening, reported difficult conditions during an approach to the Shannon Airport runway on two separate flights.
In both cases the wind strength, gusts and direction were very similar to those at the time of the accident.
The AAIU said flight crew initially decided not to perform an emergency evacuation as they had not detected any evidence of fire or smoke.
But cabin crew later started an evacuation after detecting a smell of burning.
Both Aer Arann and Shannon Airport issued statements at the time saying no injuries had been reported.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Crew unable to shut down engine during Shannon airport landing
An initial report into what caused a flight to get into difficulty while landing at Shannon airport last month has found that the crew were unable to shut down the engines.
The aircraft, operated by Aer Arann, was travelling from Manchester with 21 passengers and four crew when the accident happened on 17 July.
No-one was hurt.
Air crew were forced to pull emergency fire handles to cut off power.
The flight, operated by an ATR 72-212 aircraft, had departed Manchester Airport at 08:50 BST and had been due to arrive in Shannon Airport at 10:15 BST.
As the aircraft landed on its second approach at 10:30 BST, it got into difficulty.
The Irish Air Accident Investigation unit found that after landing, the plane skidded out of control on its nose for more than a kilometre before finally coming to a halt on a grass verge.
"The flight crew had no directional control of the aircraft from the initial runway impact to the final stopping point, as the nose wheel steering was inoperative due to the collapsed nose wheel and the rudder was jammed in the mid position," investigators said.
Smoke or steam was seen billowing from the front of the 17-year-old aircraft, as it skidded over the ground.
Engines failed
The initial report also found that the plane's left propeller crashed through and demolished a sign on the runway, damaging one of the propeller blades, as it careered off the runway.
Investigators discovered that the normal levers that are used by crew to shut down the engines failed to work.
They were forced to pull the emergency fire handles to cut off power instead.
There were turbulent weather conditions at the time of the landing and investigators said this was expected to be a "significant focus" of their continuing inquiries.
Investigators were also told that a different crew on the same aircraft on the previous night had reported "difficult conditions" approaching Shannon Airport on two separate flights.
They found that in both cases, the wind strength, direction, and gusts were similar to those at the time of the accident.
It was also revealed that flight crew had initially decided not to carry out an emergency evacuation but had later decided to after detecting the smell of burning.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk
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