TUI flight caught in fuel emergency as Storm Pia battered Britain
As Storm Pia battered Britain in 2023, a TUI flight with 291 passengers and 10 crew onboard was forced to declare a fuel emergency upon struggling to land.
A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) detailed how a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, registered G-TUIB and flying from Mexico, faced a series of challenges due to strong winds affecting the UK.
According to the AAIB, the TUI flight crew encountered Storm Pia on December 21, 2023, after an overnight transatlantic flight from Cancun International Airport (CUN).
Before leaving Mexico, the 787-8 Dreamliner crew reviewed the weather and loaded additional fuel to account for strong winds forecast at Manchester Airport (MAN).
In its report, the AAIB said: “The crew interpreted that there would likely be strong winds on arrival, but mistakenly believed these would dissipate after 0600 hrs. They decided to add some discretionary fuel sufficient to be able to carry out a missed approach and still protect diversion fuel.”
Under testing weather conditions, there were seven aircraft on hold in front of the TUI plane at MAN, so the flight crew opted to divert to East Midlands Airport (EMA). However, they were denied permission to land there due to the size of the aircraft.
Instead, the TUI flight elected to divert at Birmingham Airport (BHX) and warned air traffic control it would be on “minimum fuel” after holding at MAN for around 20 minutes.
Wind conditions at BHX were equally as bad and the crew received a windshear warning from the aircraft system just before touching down, so commenced a go-around.
The AAIB report said: “During the climb out, on contacting Birmingham Radar, the crew declared ‘tom173 reporting mayday mayday mayday, tom173 mayday fuel’.”
A fuel emergency was declared and the aircraft subsequently landed below final reserve fuel after its second approach.
The AAIB concluded that the “serious incident was the result of strong winds generating difficult conditions at the time of the arrival of the flight into the UK”.
The report added: “Having diverted from MAN to BHX the aircraft made a missed approach due to a windshear warning on final approach. This was followed by an extended track flown for a further approach because an opportunity to prioritise G-TUIB for an expeditious landing was missed. Safety action has been taken to clarify the process for determining and communicating airport capacity for diversions, and for the prioritisation of aircraft that have declared an emergency.”
The AAIB determined that the aircraft had “departed Cancun with 15 minutes of additional fuel, although significant extra capacity was available”.
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The post TUI flight caught in fuel emergency as Storm Pia battered Britain appeared first on AeroTime.
As Storm Pia battered Britain in 2023, a TUI flight with 291 passengers and 10 crew onboard was…
The post TUI flight caught in fuel emergency as Storm Pia battered Britain appeared first on AeroTime.
