News

TUI flight had to abort after error left passengers at risk of passing out


CARDIFF, UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 19: A Tui branded Boeing 737-8K5 (G-TAWX) at Cardiff Airport on January 19, 2020 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

There was a ‘very small’ risk some passengers could loose consciousness (Picture: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

A TUI flight was aborted midair after the plane did not pressurise due to switches being left off by mistake, an investigation has found.

Although the Kos-bound flight returned to Manchester with no injuries, 187 passengers and six crew members ‘were exposed to a progressive hypoxia risk’ from a lack of oxygen.

The Boeing 737-8K5 had only flown as far as northern Lincolnshire when the pilots noticed a cabin altitude warning went off.

It had departed ‘with the engine bleed air system off’ because switches regulating air pressure had been ‘incorrectly left off following maintenance activity’ on the air conditioning system the night before.

Engineers failed to switch them back on during pre-flight checks, with one telling the Air Accidents Investigation Branch they thought the switches had been returned to the ‘on’ position’.

‘The after take-off checklist is designed to trap the latter omission’, the report says, ‘but the incorrect switch selection went undetected by the crew’.

When the aircraft failed to pressurise, the cabin altitude warning ‘ich remained illuminated for 43 minutes’ because the crew did not complete prescribed drills.

A checklist in the Quick Reaction Handbook includes the ‘immediate use of oxygen masks’.

Lack of oxygen can affect decision making (Picture: MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

But the pilot continued the climb after turning both switches to on, until a further warning was activated.

At this point, the pilot turned the plane back to Manchester Airport after discussing the matter with TUI’s maintenance control.

Had the plane continued to ascend, it would have passed 14,000ft, at which point the oxygen masks would have automatically dropped.

Below this altitude, ‘the likelihood of loss of consciousness is very small’ without significant pre-existing medical issues.

However, within this range, hypoxia can still affect decision-making abilities.

The report suggests the pilots thought it would have been ‘disproportionate’ to deploy oxygen masks after turning on the switches.

But ‘donning the oxygen masks as an immediate action would have given both pilots immediate protection from any hypoxia risk and allowed them to clarify the situation with the highest risk removed’, investigators said.

Metro has contacted TUI for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

…read more

Source:: Metro

      

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *