An investigation by Ireland's Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) has found that a tired Aer Lingus pilot lost situational awareness during an unstable approach into Dublin Airport, leading to an excessive bank angle and a go-around that was classified as an aircraft upset.
The event occurred on 14 January during a flight from Faro to Dublin carrying 146 passengers. The aircraft involved was an Airbus A320, the workhorse of Aer Lingus's short-haul fleet.
According to the AAIU, the aircraft became too high and too fast on final approach. In an attempt to salvage the approach, the commander disconnected the autopilot and fully deployed the speed brakes to lose height and speed. When that did not stabilise the approach, the crew initiated a go-around.
During the go-around the aircraft rolled to a bank angle of 44 degrees, well beyond the normal operational limit of 33 degrees. Because the aircraft unintentionally departed from its intended flight parameters, investigators classified the event as an aircraft upset, a category reserved for significant deviations from controlled flight.
The report highlighted fatigue as a factor. The commander told investigators that he did not sleep well the night before the flight and that he “may have been tired.” Loss of situational awareness during a high-workload phase of flight is a well-documented risk, and approach and go-around segments leave little margin for delayed or incorrect responses.
In response to the incident, Aer Lingus has banned all orbit manoeuvres during airport approaches, restricting them strictly to the training environment. Crews have been re-instructed that an immediate go-around is the mandatory preferred option whenever an approach becomes unstable, rather than attempting to rescue it.
The findings are a reminder that even routine short-haul flights operated by experienced crews can drift toward the edges of safe operation when workload rises and rest is compromised. By tightening its procedures around unstable approaches, Aer Lingus is aiming to remove the temptation to continue an approach that should be abandoned, reinforcing a go-around-first culture that regulators and safety investigators have long encouraged.
Sources: FlightGlobal, Aviation24. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Daniel Okafor.
Comments
Loading comments…