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| Date: | Thursday 22 September 2022 |
| Time: | 12:00 |
| Type: |  Airbus A330-243 |
| Owner/operator: | Hawaiian Airlines |
| Registration: | N393HA |
| MSN: | 1422 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2013 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 3610 hours |
| Engine model: | Rolls-Royce Trent 772-B60 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 290 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX/KLAX), Los Angeles, CA -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Los Angeles International Airport, CA (LAX/KLAX) |
| Honolulu-Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, HI (HNL/PHNL) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On September 22, 2022, about 1200 Pacific daylight time, Hawaiian Airlines flight 3, an Airbus A330-243, N393HA, experienced a pitch trim anomaly while climbing out of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, California. The flight crew declared an emergency, and the airplane returned to LAX without further incident. None of the 12 crewmembers and 278 passengers aboard the airplane were injured, and the airplane sustained no damage. The regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight, from LAX to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Honolulu, Hawaii, was operating under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121.
The flight crew reported that, when the airplane climbed through flight level 360, the trimmable horizontal stabilizer (THS) trim wheel began to move “very quickly” forward and aft, creating small pitching oscillations. No message appeared on the airplane’s electronic centralized aircraft monitor, and no flight deck alerts annunciated. The crew decided to turn off the autopilot to isolate the malfunction. However, when the autopilot was off, the trim wheel continued to move erratically. The crew then reengaged the autopilot, and small pitch oscillations resumed. These oscillations, which were below the threshold to trigger a fault, were partially countered by flight control system inputs, but the trim wheel continued its uncommanded movement. The first officer (the pilot flying) then turned off the autopilot and manually flew the airplane for the rest of the flight while the captain (the pilot monitoring) managed the situation.
The flight crew contacted air traffic control to declare an emergency and advise that fuel would need to be jettisoned before the airplane returned to the airport. Afterward, fuel was jettisoned until the airplane reached its maximum landing weight. The airplane landed uneventfully, and the emergency was terminated after landing. The airplane’s Post Flight Report information showed the “PITCH TRIM ACTR [actuator] OVERRIDE SWITCH” fault message.The maintenance crew at the airport replaced the pitch trim actuator (a subcomponent of the THS actuator), and an operational test of the THS actuator was successful.
One possible scenario for the uncommanded pitch trim wheel movement involved a failure or malfunction of a subcomponent of the THS actuator (the No. 1 digital electronic module, which digitizes the analog signals from THS position sensors. Extensive testing of the THS actuator and its subcomponents, including the incident pitch trim actuator and the No. 1 digital electronic module, was conducted at the manufacturers’ facilities. However, the testing did not identify the specific reason for the uncommanded pitch trim wheel movements during the incident flight. As a result, the investigation was unable to determine the cause of the anomaly based on the available evidence. It is important to note that this investigation found that the anomaly appeared to be isolated to components that were either removed and repaired or replaced on the incident airplane. Further, the incident airplane had no pitch or pitch trim flight control faults related to the circumstances of this incident since the THS actuator was removed and replaced in November 2022.
Probable Cause: Uncommanded movement of the trimmable horizontal stabilizer control wheel for reasons that could not be determined based on the available evidence.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket?ProjectID=106004
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 18 December 2022 | N393HA | Hawaiian Airlines | 0 | 65 nm NNE of Maui, HI | |
min |
| Turbulence | ||||||
| 30 June 2023 | N393HA | Hawaiian Airlines | 0 | over Tuvalu |  |
non |
| Turbulence | ||||||
| 1 October 2023 | N393HA | Hawaiian Airlines | 0 | SW of Las Vegas-Harry Reid International Airport, NV (LAS/KLAS) | |
unk |
| Lightningstrike | ||||||
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 28-Oct-2022 08:53 | Captain Adam | Added |
| 22-Sep-2024 18:14 | Captain Adam | Updated [Location, Phase, Source, Narrative, Accident report, ] |
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