A HOLIDAY jet returning to Britain suffered a major electrical system fault in which the crew lost all radio contact with the ground, according to an accident report.
The pilots of the Bristol-bound EasyJet Airbus A319 were so concerned that they feared they might be intercepted by military aircraft, the report from the UK air accidents investigation branch (AAIB) found.
They were also worried that if they deviated from the flight plan and diverted to another airfield, this “might be considered a hostile action” which could have led to “offensive measures being taken against their aircraft”.
At one point the aircraft’s transponder signal was lost for about 10 minutes during which time the aircraft was not visible to air traffic control at Brest in France.
The captain, one of six crew on board the aircraft which was carrying 138 passengers, decided to land as scheduled at Bristol and the aircraft touched down safely.
Describing the incident as “serious”, the AAIB said the potential effect of loss of all three VHF radios was categorised by airworthiness authorities as “major” but, in the current security climate, was judged to be more severe.
The aircraft was flying from Alicante in Spain on September 15th, 2006, and had experienced a fault affecting the number-one left electrical generator on the outward flight. Flying over Nantes in France on the return trip to Bristol, the aircraft’s electrical system failed, causing a number of the aircraft’s systems to become inoperative. This meant it could only be flown manually – all its radios became inoperative and the captain’s flight instrument displays went blank.
Attempts to get the electrical system corrected failed and the crew were unable to contact air traffic control. The aircraft landed normally at Bristol, “with the radios and several other systems still inoperative”, the AAIB said.
It made 10 further safety recommendations to add to the four it made in a report in December 2006. Yesterday’s report said the generator control unit had repeatedly been rejected from service before the incident and returned to service “without the fault having been found”. – (PA)