Incident Overview

Description
Flight 3378 departed Khania, Crete, Greece, at 10:59 for a flight to Hannover. The crew encountered problems fully raising the right hand main landing gear. It was decided to continue flight with the gear down and to divert to Mnchen. During the flight the calculated spare fuel (EFOB) at Mnchen decreased on the FMS. The crew now decided to divert to Vienna-Schwechat Airport instead. Approaching Vienna it appeared that there was not enough fuel on board. At about 12nm short of the runway, at about 4000 feet altitude both engines quit. The crew were able to restart one engine for a short period of time, managing to reach the airport. The aircraft landed in the grass some 500 m from the runway 34 threshold. The left main gear broke off and the no. 1 engine and wing sustained substantial damage as the aircraft slid for 600 m before coming to rest. CAUSES: Continuation of the flight with a landing gear problem until the engines failed due to fuel shortage. Crew: – Failure to comply with the company’s rules on fuel reserves, caused by several human factors, with extreme work load and stress being the important factor (loss of situational awareness). – Determination of the fuel reserves using only the FMS, which, due to its characteristics did not take into account the additional fuel consumption. – Failure to develop alternative strategies to curb the fuel problem. – Failure to comply with a fuel warning (low fuel level warning) and decision to continue the flight to Vienna International Airport, although the plane was in the immediate vicinity of Zagreb Airport. Manufacturer: – Inadequate and misleading documentation (FMS scheme, altitude, terms) for this specific case, particularly in relation to the restriction of FMS. Aviation companies: – Inadequate documentation for “abnormal landing gear up indication” of the abnormal checklist. – Lack of review of the fuel needs by the Operations Division. Contributing factors: – Missing or inadequate preventive measures by manufacturers, approving authority and airlines following the previous publications of ICAO and EU DG VII about problems which, with the introduction of aircraft equipped with modern technologies, occurred and had been identified. – Anthropo-technical construction deficiencies, which favour a misinterpretation of the FMS EFOB display.
Source of Information
http://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/A310,_Vienna_Austria,_2000http://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/A310,_Vienna_Austria,_2000Primary Cause
Fuel shortage leading to the crew’s decision to continue the flight with a landing gear problem, compounded by a failure to adequately manage fuel reserves and a lack of alternative strategies to address the situation.Fuel shortage leading to the crew’s decision to continue the flight with a landing gear problem, compounded by a failure to adequately manage fuel reserves and a lack of alternative strategies to address the situation.Share on: