Positioning Of Captain’s Personal Camera Caused Near Crash Of U.K. A330 
LONDON – The U.K. Military Aviation Authority (MAA) is calling for changes in the culture and behavior of aircrews after it found the near loss of one of the U.K.’s Airbus A330 tanker aircraft was caused by the positioning of the captain’s personal camera.
In its March 23 report, the MAA describes how the Airbus A330-200 Voyager multi-role tanker transport came close to being lost with all 198 passengers and crew onboard.
The incident took place during a trooping flight to Afghanistan on Feb. 9 last year. A crash was narrowly avoided thanks to the aircraft’s flight envelope protection system, the report says.
The MAA says the aircraft, operated by the Airtanker consortium on behalf of the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) but being flown by a RAF crew, was over the Black Sea at 33,000 ft. en route to Camp Bastion, Helmand Province.
The captain was alone on the flight deck as the co-pilot took a break. During this time, the captain took 28 photos of the flight deck using his personal digital SLR camera before placing the camera between the captain’s seat armrest and the left-hand side-stick controller.
One minute before the incident, the captain began moving his seat forward, creating a slight physical jam between the armrest and the side-stick, which had the camera wedged between them.
“At the onset of the event, the captain’s seat was moved forward again, forcing the side-stick fully forward and initiating the pitch-down command,” the report says.
The stick command disconnected the autopilot and sent the aircraft into a steep dive with the A330 losing 4,400 ft. in 27 sec.
With no co-pilot in the right-hand seat, the command could not be countermanded until he returned, having scaled across the cockpit ceiling in negative g to return to his seat.
The aircraft’s onboard self-protection systems overrode the stick input, with pitch-down protection activated 3 sec. after the pitch-down command was given, while high-speed protection was triggered 13 sec. after the event started as the aircraft passed through 330 kt. With the flight control system idling the engines, it recovered the dive to level flight.
According to the report, the camera became free from the side-stick and armrest after 33 sec.
Passengers and crew in the main cabin were thrown to the ceiling, with 24 passengers sustaining injuries during the dive, along with all seven of the cabin crew. Most of the injuries occurred as the individuals came into contact with the ceiling and overhead fittings or were struck by loose objects.
The crew then diverted the aircraft to Incirlik air base in Turkey, where it made a safe landing.
While the incident caused damage to a number of fixtures and fittings inside the cabin, there was no damage to the cockpit and no structural damage to the aircraft.
U.K. defense ministry officials formally halted operations with the military-specification Voyager following the incident. The report adds that the captain’s oral report “alluded only to a possible fault with the autopilot.” The ministry lifted the grounding after 12 days on Feb. 21.
“I classify this incident as a near-miss for very good reason,” said Air Marshal Richard Garwood, director general of the MAA, in the report’s conclusion.
“Frankly, without the excellent technology of the Airbus A330 flight control laws, the outcome could have been very different,” he said. “The culture and behaviors with regard to taking nonessential loose articles onto the flight deck is a major concern and needs to change.”
The report says that the siting of the camera between the side-stick and the captain’s seat armrest was the direct cause of the incident. But it also said there were several contributory issues, including what the report describes as “normalized behavior” regarding the carriage and treatment of loose articles, as well as the use of the camera in the cockpit. It also questions the extended presence of a single person in the cockpit, and that low workload and boredom may have been a contributory factor as the A330’s cockpit is highly automated, which led the captain to take photographs to keep himself occupied.
The report says this is the first incident of its type ever to be reported to Airbus in 190 million flight hours.
“On this occasion, the A330 automatic self-protection systems likely prevented a disaster of significant scale,” Garwood adds. “The loss of the aircraft was not an unrealistic possibility.”
“The RAF is in the process of implementing the recommendations made by the Service Inquiry, including instructions to ensure no objects are placed between pilots’ armrests and the side-stick,” an RAF spokesman told Aviation Week.
The same spokesman would not confirm the current status of the pilot. “RAF investigations and consideration of the matter are ongoing. Therefore, we are unable to offer additional comment at this time,” he said.
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