Incident Overview

Description
While landing on runway 14 at Leeds Bradford Airport the aircraft touched down just beyond the end of the marked touchdown zone with low autobrake selected. Manual wheel braking commenced shortly after mainwheel touchdown. At a groundspeed of around 70 kt the brakes ceased operating, for about 17 seconds. A pronounced dip in the runway surface initially prevented the pilots from seeing the runway end. When it became apparent to the commander that it would not be possible to stop before the end of the runway, he deliberately did not select alternate braking, as this would have caused loss of nosewheel steering, but instead used nosewheel steering to turn the aircraft sharply to the right. The aircraft skidded sideways and came to a halt with its nosewheels off the runway, shortly before the end of the paved surface and the start of a steep down slope. Causal factors: 1. Excessive wheel tachometer signal noise, caused by a bent tachometer driveshaft on each main landing gear assembly, resulted in loss of braking using the Normal system. 2. Inadequate fault tolerance within the brake control system led to the sustained loss of Normal braking during the landing ground roll. 3. There was no flight deck indication of brake system malfunction, and this delayed the crews recognition of the loss of braking. 4. There was a lack of effective action to fully rectify brake system anomalies apparent from previous incidents and accidents.
Primary Cause
Faulty tachometer system leading to loss of braking using the Normal system, inadequate brake system fault tolerance, lack of flight deck brake system indication, and delayed recognition of brake system malfunction.Faulty tachometer system leading to loss of braking using the Normal system, inadequate brake system fault tolerance, lack of flight deck brake system indication, and delayed recognition of brake system malfunction.Share on: