A serious incident involving a TAP Air Portugal aircraft is being investigated by Portuguese authorities, in which an Airbus A330neo Incorrect parameters entered by the pilots took off at the last minute in the capital Angola. The case was registered on April 12, but the details of the investigation were released only recently. As mentioned by The Aviation Herald,
On this occasion, the CS-TUL registration jet will fly from Luanda to Lisbon with 148 passengers and 10 crew, completing the regular TP-288 service. After receiving instructions from the tower controller, the pilots entered the runway at the “E” intersection and began acceleration for takeoff.
A few seconds later, the commander noticed that the end of the runway was approaching much sooner than expected. With a speed of 147 knots, the jet still could not take off. This was when the pilot applied full thrust to the aircraft, allowing rapid acceleration and allowing the aircraft to leave the ground at 163 knots in the final seconds before crossing the runway.
dust off
The flight attendant told investigators that they saw through the windows, dust was blowing over the head of the runway after the plane lifted off the ground. The same observation was confirmed by the control tower. After that, the crew continued the flight to Lisbon without any other problems.
The Portuguese authority – GPIAA – reported that the investigation was still ongoing, but it was possible to identify Pilots are wrongly consideredIn your takeoff calculationThose who would have the full runway to take off would actually have to enter through the “E” intersection, as the rest of the runway was closed.
Due to incorrect parameters, he did not exert full power for the start, as he thought he would have all 3,700 metres, enough power of 85% to reach the speed required to leave the ground. However, with 1,000 meters less available, the aircraft’s 191,000 kilogram weight would be impossible to take off from the intersection without power.
The investigation process is on. The completion of this case will result in the recommendations of the Portuguese regulator.