Two pilots tried to fly Virgin Australia plane in 'opposite directions'– report: Safety authority says damage later found on plane ‘might have been a result' of incident, during which attendant broke a leg

A flight attendant broke her leg as two pilots on a Virgin Australia flight from Canberra to Sydney were controlling the plane in “opposite directions”, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) preliminary investigation has found. 

 The same plane went on to make 13 more flights over the next five days until an inspection after a suspected bird strike revealed significant structural damage “which may have been a result” of the original incident.

As a result, the ATSB has combined the two separate investigations into one and will continue their investigation.

The first incident involving the aircraft VH-FVR happened on 20 February this year when the plane was approaching Sydney in clear weather on a Thursday afternoon flight.

Shortly before it was due to land in Sydney, the plane was assigned a different runway and the crew had to recalibrate their instruments for a new approach.

The seatbelt signs were switched on and as they prepared to land the crew noticed the airspeed was increasing and the “speed trend was excessively high”.

The first officer reduced the engine power before manually raising the nose to control the speed, the report said. The aircraft felt “heavy” and the first officer had to use two hands on the controls to pull the plane’s nose up. But the captain was unsure if the actions of the first officer, who was sitting next to him, were enough so “put one of his hands on the controls and disconnected the autopilot to raise the nose further”.

“The captain believed he indicated his intention to take over control and while the first officer could not recall it being verbalised he was aware of the captain’s actions,” the report said.

“Each pilot was then controlling the elevator on their side of the aircraft in opposite directions for a brief period before the first officer released his control column,” the report said. The report does not explain why the two men knew of the other’s intentions but still each tried to maintain control.

“At some point the cabin crew called the cockpit and advised that the senior cabin crew member had injured her leg and that it might be broken. In the next contact with air traffic control the crew asked for an ambulance to be available after landing.”

The plane was then put in for maintenance, where engineers discovered the “vertical load factor” had exceeded the acceptable limit for aircraft weight.

Turbulence was reported so “a detailed walk around” was done. An inspection of parts of the plane, including the tail, was done “by torchlight” but no defects were found. The plane was put back into service the next day.

After 13 more flights, the plane passed a flock of birds on the way to Albury so engineers did a check, after it landed, for potential “birdstrike”.

“The engineer used scissor lift equipment to inspect the tailplane and confirmed that the fairing might have been damaged by a bird but that there was also significant structural damage on top of the tailplane. The aircraft was grounded and the ATSB advised.

"Later information from the operator suggested that the damage to the tailplane might have been a result of the occurrence involving VH-FVR on 20 February 2014. On this basis, the ATSB combined its investigation into the aircraft damage identified in Albury with its investigation into the earlier flight control occurrence."

In a statement to Australian Aviation, Virgin Australia said: “The safety of our guests, crew and aircraft is our number one priority at Virgin Australia and we have strong protocols in place to ensure the safety of our operations is maintained to the highest standard.

“While this is an isolated issue, we are working with the ATSB, the aircraft manufacturer and our maintenance provider to identify what has occurred. As the investigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate for us to comment in any further detail at this stage.”

Source:  http://www.theguardian.com

Virgin plane flew for days with possibly significant structural damage  

Virgin Australia is investigating why one of its planes flew for several days with possibly significant structural damage.

Pilots reported something wrong with the 68-seat turbo prop plane when it had a hard landing in Canberra in February.

It was inspected by an engineer and then allowed to fly for several more days before it was grounded.

Virgin says it is an isolated issue and is working with the transport and safety authorities as well as the aircraft manufacturer to identify what has occurred.

It says it will not be providing any more information until the investigation is complete. 

Source:  http://www.abc.net.au