ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 264875
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| Date: | Tuesday 20 April 2021 |
| Time: | 18:54 |
| Type: |  Fairchild SA227-DC Metro 23 |
| Owner/operator: | Toll Aviation |
| Registration: | VH-HPE |
| MSN: | DC-823B |
| Year of manufacture: | 1993 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | Townsville-Garbutt Airfield, QLD (TSV/YBTL) -
 Australia
|
| Phase: | Taxi |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Townsville-Garbutt Airfield, QLD (TSV/YBTL) |
| Brisbane International Airport, QLD (BNE/YBBN) | |
| Investigating agency: | ATSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Toll Aviation flight TFX135, a Swearingen SA227-DC Metro 23 aircraft taxied at Townsville Airport, for a freight charter flight to Brisbane, Australia. At about 18:54 air traffic control (ATC) cleared the aircraft to line up on runway 01 from taxiway Alpha 1.
It was dark, as last light had occurred approximately 56 minutes earlier. Rain showers had also passed through the area intermittently during the preceding 30 minutes. The automatic terminal information service reported runway conditions at the time as wet, with visibility reducing to 4 km in rain and scattered cloud at 700 ft above ground level.
As the aircraft was entering the runway, and 20 seconds after issuing the line-up clearance, ATC advised the pilot that the aerodrome QNH had changed. This change required the pilot to adjust the altimeter datum that had been set prior to line-up. Twelve seconds later, ATC cleared the aircraft for take-off. As the pilot read back this clearance, completed the before take-off drills, and taxied the aircraft into position on the runway, they reported becoming aware that the aircraft ‘had deviated from the lead-in line’ and ‘started correcting the turn immediately to…regain a track to the centreline’. Having made this correction, and assessing that the runway centreline would be regained shortly after beginning the take-off roll, the pilot commenced a rolling take-off and reported no unusual indications throughout departure.
During routine aerodrome inspections carried out 48 minutes after the aircraft departed, it was discovered that an above ground runway light on the left side of runway 01 had been struck and damaged by an aircraft
Pre-flight inspections carried out on the aircraft the next day found damage to a propeller blade on the left engine that was consistent with the propeller impacting a foreign object.
Contributing factors :
- The pilot reported being distracted and ‘head down’ during the initial line-up sequence to configure the aircraft for take-off.
- Townsville’s runway 01 includes a wider ORP section at its end, which contributed to the pilot’s false perception that they had not travelled across the runway as far as they actually had during the line-up phase.
- The weather at the time, which was similar to that of the 2009 DHC-8 occurrence, was wet with rain intermittently reducing visibility.
- A change in local QNH had required ATC to contact the pilot during the line-up sequence, adding to the pilot’s workload during this phase.
- Townsville’s runway 01 does not have centreline lighting, which reduces the visual cues available to a pilot to confirm the correct runway orientation.
- Recessed runway lighting is used to denote the outline of the normal runway dimensions within the ORP area. This has the potential to contribute to spatial disorientation during the line-up phase, as this type of runway lighting is normally used to indicate the centreline on a runway equipped with centreline lighting.
Sources:
http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/occurrence-briefs/2021/aviation/ab-2021-014/
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/vh-hpe#27754315
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 1 September 2015 | VH-HPE | Toll Aviation | 0 | Thangool Airport, QLD (THG) | |
sub |
| 11 May 2020 | VH-HPE | Toll Aviation | 0 | near Rockhampton Airport, QLD | |
non |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 29-Jun-2021 07:40 | Pineapple | Added |
| 30-Jun-2021 12:37 | harro | Updated [Aircraft type] |
| 30-Jun-2021 14:29 | harro | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total occupants, Source, Narrative] |
| 09-Dec-2021 17:21 | harro | Updated [[Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total occupants, Source, Narrative]] |
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