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Final Report: reports.aviati...
ATR 42 Image: Ronnie Robertson - ATR 42 OY-CIR IMG_0524
Images: AIBN
This is the story of Danish air transport flight 54. On the 31st of january 2005 a crew started their day. On that day their day was packed they had to fly multiple hops. By about 11 am had already flown between floro and bergen. Now they were getting ready to fly another trip to floro from bergen. On the ground the pilots tested out the rudder and the ailerons just to make sure that everything was working, the first officer put the elevator through its full range of motion. It was a bit stiffer than usual. He associated that to the wind that day and didn't think too much of it. When youre on the ground the wind can push up against the elevator giving it a bit of stiffness its nothing to be concerned about and so they taxied to the runway.
The ATR 42 lined up with runway 35 and flight 54 started the takeoff roll at 11:28 am. The plane accelerated and within minutes the pilots were ready to takeoff. But as the captain pulled back on the stick he noted that he needed more force than usual to takeoff. His mind raced and he thought that he had set the trim incorrectly for takeoff. But as the plane climbed away from floro they both knew that that wasn't the case. Something was wrong with their plane.
In the cockpit the pilots were struggling to keep their plane under control. Both pilots wrestled with the controls just to keep the plane stable. The elevator was now moving in an uneven fashion, completely different from what they had observed on the ground. The captain didnt even bother turning the autopilot on as he knew that it would disengage.
At 11:29 am flight 54 was 3 nm north of the airport and they were at 2000 feet. They needed to land as soon as possible and so the pilots put out a mayday.The approach controller at flesland put the plane on a westerly course guiding it back to runway 35 and asked them to climb to 3000 feet. They needed to climb as there was some terrain in the area that they had to clear before they turned south. As they turned the captain could see the runway. The controller cleared the plane for a left downwind approach to runway 35. The pilots told the controller about their control issues and asked the airport to have emergency vehicles on stand by.
Within minutes the airport had fire trucks near the runway. By now the controllability issues had eased up a bit but the pilots lined the atr with the runway. I wonder what the pilots must have been thinking at that point. They were so close to their destination. 7 minutes after takeoff flight 54 landed back at floro. When the plane was back on the ground the captain asked the cabin crew member how the cabin was throughout the incident. Apparently in the cabin things were fine. No one in the cabin knew how serious the incident was.
After they had landed the pilots decided to inspect the plane. This is what they saw, the source of their troubles. The right hand elevator had mostly separated from the stabilizer. Three bolts and hinges were supposed to hold the elevator to the stabilizer and of that only one hinge was intact. I guess you could say that their success hinged on that one intact bolt. See what i did there? You know what, never mind.
14 дек 2021