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| Date: | Thursday 24 August 1995 |
| Time: | 10:20 |
| Type: |  Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante |
| Owner/operator: | Overseas Courier Service (OCS) |
| Registration: | G-OCSZ |
| MSN: | 11369 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor, repaired |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | Over Zaragoza -
 Spain
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Salamanca Airport (SLM/LESA) |
| Logroño-Agoncillo Airport (RJL/LERJ) | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The aircraft was flying level at FL100 in the cruise with everything normal, the flight had been completely event free, with a direct routing from half way between Zomara & Domingo straight to Zaragoza. The crew had just contacted Zaragoza approach with a position report, and had been asked to call with 20 miles to run.
About three or four minutes later a 'crack' was heard from the electrical rack and the master caution light started to flash simultaneously. The master annunciator panel (MAP) was checked and the right generator and No 1 inverter warning lights were on. Almost immediately the commander heard circuit breakers popping 'like crackers' and saw the flags on his artificial horizon and horizontal situation indicator (HSI) appear.
The circuit breakers which had tripped, and which the crew were unable to reset, included: main fuel pumps left and right, left auxiliary fuel pump, artificial horizon Pl side (but this reset and came on line after selection of emergency bus), P1 audio, marker beacon 1 & 2, gyro compasses 1 & 2 and the cockpit panel lights. The first officer stated that some circuit breakers had tripped on his side too, but he managed to reset them.
The commander looked around the instrument panel and was amazed to see the torque gauges, hydraulic pressure gauges, fuel flow, pressure and contents gauges all reading either zero or maximum. The P2 instruments also had flags showing on the artificial horizon and HSI and, at the same time, all avionics went off line except COM 2. The crew switched off the right generator and No 1 inverter, and switched to Box 2, but that instantly went off line.
The commander stated that he felt somewhat confused at such a massive and complete electrical failure, and could not understand why everything should have failed simultaneously.
All the crew were now left with were the ASIs with the landing gear flags showing, vertical speed
indicators and altimeters. There were TS engine indications and NH, Ng and oil temperature
indications. The appropriate emergency checklists were completed, but it was still apparent that
nothing would work. An attempt was made to reset the generator, inverter and other circuit breakers,
but without success. The No 2 inverter did not show up as failed on the MAP, but the commander
suspected that this too had failed because of the nature of the instrument failures.
By this time the crew had tried everything in the emergency checklist so they then tried to reset the
No 1 generator, but still no power came back to any of the flight instruments or radio/navigation
equipment. The commander then decided to select the emergency busbar, and the only instrument to
come back on line was the P1 artificial horizon.
The commander was very concerned that they still had an estimated 40 miles to run to Zaragoza
without any radio or navigation aids whatsoever to assist them, but as the weather was clear and they
had ground contact, they continued towards the destination airfield by using the standby compass as
there were no other options apparent to them.
Then, to the amazement of the crew, the right engine lost power, confirmed by the commander's input of left rudder to keep the aircraft in balance, and by the T5 and Ng instruments. The TS showed 550° and the Ng showed 50%, the commander tried moving the power lever backwards and forwards on the right engine, but there was no effect. He asked the first officer to confirm that the right engine indications showed a failure, and upon confirmation he shut down the right engine in accordance with standard operating procedures (SOPS).
The commander could see that they were clear of any high ground and elected to descend to FL80
(Minimum Safety Altitude was 5,500 feet) in order to look for Zaragoza or a suitable airfield or landing
site at which to make an emergency landing. He was flying a heading on the HSI as he normally did
but then realised, on checking the standby compass, that they were in fact heading 030° instead of
085°. He turned the aircraft to the right and checked their ETA with the first officer and recognised
that they should be in the vicinity of Zaragoza. They looked very hard for the airfield but could not see it, so the commander flew the aircraft in a rectangular pattern with the hope of finding a suitable
landing airfield.
They were over their ETA by 10 minutes and by now the flight deck was filling with an 'acrid hot
burning smell', obviously electrical, so they decided to isolate the battery by pulling the breaker in the electrical rack and to trip the battery relay circuit breaker.
The commander's main concern now was the possibility of a fire in the electrical rack, so he opened
the direct vision windows and descended the aircraft visually to 3,500 feet looking for a suitable
landing site. The first officer estimated that they had at least 80 minutes of fuel left so they continued to fly visually in search of an airfield. A runway was finally spotted as they flew northbound back up the valley and the commander recognized the two parallel runways as being Zaragoza in accordance with the airfield charts.
The first officer selected gear down, but nothing happened, so the gear was extended manually in
accordance with the checklist and SOPs. The commander elected to carry out a flapless landing as the
runway length was in excess of 3,000 metres. He felt that there was no point in re-instating the battery at that stage of the flight, and it was most unlikely that the flaps would work.
The aircraft was landed on the military runway which was the first available into wind runway. The
aircraft was brought to a stop using the brakes and it was noted that there was no nosewheel steering
available. The aircraft was slowly maneuvered onto the runway exit, and once clear of the runway the left engine was shut down and the crew exited the aircraft in the normal way.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422ed29ed915d1371000155/Embraer_EMB-110_P1_Bandeirante__G-OCSZ_12-95.pdf
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/8737452 (Photo)
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 01-Apr-2025 18:38 | Justanormalperson | Added |
| 01-Apr-2025 18:38 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, Accident report, ] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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