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| Date: | Friday 14 September 2018 |
| Time: | 13:05 |
| Type: |  Boeing 757-28A (WL) |
| Owner/operator: | TUI Airways |
| Registration: | G-OOBA |
| MSN: | 32446/950 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2000 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 52208 hours |
| Cycles: | 16696 flights |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 228 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | Boa Vista-Rabil Airport (BVC/GVBA) -
 Cape Verde
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Boa Vista-Rabil Airport (BVC/GVBA) |
| London-Gatwick Airport (LGW/EGKK) | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
TUI flight TOM579, a Boeing 757-200, was accelerating for takeoff at Boa Vista-Rabil Airport (BVC) when the crew experienced a disagree condition with the airspeed indication between the Captain’s and First Officer’s indicators.
The airspeed disagrees resulted in the crew receiving the following advisory warnings in EICAS “IAS DISAGREE”, “RUDDER RATIO” and “MACH SPEED TRIM”.
Due to erroneous airspeed indications while climbing through 4000 feet, the flight declared a MAYDAY and climbed to 8000 feet to clear cloud and prepare the aircraft, passengers and crew for a landing at Sal International Airport (SID).
The aircraft realized an overweight landing around 13:58 LT.
PROBABLE CAUSES
The Institute for the Prevention and Investigation of Aeronautical and Maritime Aircraft Accidents (IPIAAM) determines that the probable causes of this incident are:
1 – The obstruction of pitot/ static probes during take-off phase at the time of incident;
2 – Temporary airspeed disagrees between the Captain’s and First Officer’s instruments, likely following the obstruction of the Pitot / statics probes by leaf-like materials that, in particular, caused the EICAS messages such as “IAS DISAGREE”, “RUDDER RATIO” and “MACH SPD TRIM”;
3 – The occurrence of the Airspeed Indicator failure during take-off completely surprised the pilots of flight G-OOBA;
4 – The erroneous reading or disagree of airspeed indications between the Captain’s and First Officer’s indicators and EICAS messages, did not help the crews with their diagnosis.
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS:
The following factors may have contributed to the incident:
1 – Environmental factor, rainy season and weed growth and insect development increase the likelihood of weeds being transported to the pitot orifices.
2 – Change in wind position and crosswind experienced by the crew during take- off, may have contributed for blockage of the pitot tube
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
IPIAAM
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 8 September 2020 | G-OOBA | TUI Airways | 0 | Birmingham International Airport (BHX/EGBB) |  |
non |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 04-Jul-2024 07:45 | ASN | Added |
| 04-Jul-2024 07:48 | ASN | Updated [Operator, Location, Nature, Narrative, ] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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