ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 238529
Last updated: 22 February 2021
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| Date: | 27-APR-2020 |
| Time: | 03:56 LT |
| Type: |  ATR 72-212F |
| Owner/operator: | Swiftair |
| Registration: | EC-INV |
| C/n / msn: | 274 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor |
| Category: | Serious incident |
| Location: | Köln/Bonn Airport (CGN/EDDK) -
 Germany
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Köln/Bonn-Konrad Adenauer Airport (CGN/EDDK) |
| Sofia-Vrazhdebna Airport (SOF/LBSF) | |
| Investigating agency: | BFU Germany |
On the day of the occurrence, the two-man flight crew was scheduled to conduct an early morning cargo transport flight with an ATR 72-212 from Cologne/Bonn Airport to Sofia Airport, Bulgaria.
After engine start-up, the crew received the following instruction from Cologne/Bonn Ground: "[...] taxi via Tango hold short 06." At 03:53:28 hours at taxi-holding position of runway 06 they received the following instruction from Cologne/Bonn Tower: "[...] backtrack and line up runway 06." The crew taxied the airplane on the centreline of runway 24 towards the turnpad (paved area next to the runway for turning) for runway 06. According to the Pilot in Command’s (PIC) statement, he controlled the airplane with his left hand via the Tiller (nose wheel hand steering). According to the CVR recording, the Before Take-off Checklist was completed during taxi. Once the turnpad was reached the airplane initially followed the yellow taxi guidance lines for turning. The airplane turned left abreast of the intersection with taxiway Bravo.
According to the CVR, a sound was heard in the cockpit during the left-hand turn. The crew tried to identify the cause of the sound. Initially, the crew assumed that the cockpit door had opened, but then determined that the PIC’s bag had fallen down behind the seat.
The PIC completed the turn and aligned the airplane with the white lights in front of him. The crew waited for take-off clearance because other aircraft were taking off from the crossing runway 32R. According to their statements, both pilots were sure that the airplane was standing on the centreline of runway 06, correctly aligned. At 03:56:13 hrs the crew received take-off clearance: "[...] wind one hundred 5 kt runway 06 cleared for takeoff [...]."
The crew began take-off run. The PIC controlled the nose landing gear with the Tiller and pushed the power levers. After a short acceleration phase the crew observed several blows to the airplane. They saw objects flying off, but could not identify them. The PIC aborted take-off. The co-pilot was not informed concerning this matter. After a short discussion the crew taxied back via taxiway Tango to their assigned parking position. The crew could not explain the blows and sounds.
The subsequent runway inspection showed that a total of 9 lamps of the left runway edge lighting had been torn off or destroyed and one taxiway lamp was damaged.
After engine shut-off, the crew determined damage in the area of the nose landing gear, below the fuselage close to the main landing gear and on individual propeller blades.
Conclusions:
The Serious Incident occurred because the crew confused the left runway edge marking and lighting of runway 06 of Cologne/Bonn Airport with the centre line and therefore had aligned the airplane unnoticed with the wrong runway lighting for takeoff.
Contributing factors:
- Low attention level of the crew
- Distraction in the cockpit during the turn on the turnpad.
- The width and marking in the area of turnpad and the beginning of runway 06.
- From the cockpit it was difficult to differentiate between runway edge lighting and centre line lighting.
Sources:
https://www.bfu-web.de/DE/Publikationen/Bulletins/2020/Bulletin2020-04.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Images:
Photo of EC-INV courtesy AirHistory.net
Madrid - Adolfo Suarez / Barajas (LEMD / MAD)
25 September 2019; (c) Sir Hofma
Photo: BFU
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 23-Jul-2020 17:13 | harro | Added |
| 23-Jul-2020 17:14 | harro | Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport] |
| 23-Jan-2021 18:47 | harro | Updated [Total occupants, Narrative, Accident report] |
| 23-Jan-2021 19:23 | harro | Updated [Photo] |
| 23-Jan-2021 19:27 | harro | Updated [Time] |
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