Novice jet pilot's mistake led to airport emergency

A MISTAKE by a novice passenger jet pilot on his fifth training flight sparked a full-scale emergency at Manchester Airport, air accident investigators have found.

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

The misjudgement by a co-pilot prompted a ‘tail strike’ as a TUI holiday flight to the Canaries took off.

Shocked cabin crew reported they were jolted by a ‘very big bang’ as the trainee pilot, being tutored by an experienced commander, increased the pitch of the Boeing 737-800 too sharply on the long-bodied jet, causing the tail to strike the runway on take off, according to an official report.

Investigators pointed to ‘disjointed training due to public health restrictions’ as a factor in the novice pilot’s misjudgement while TUI has accepted training delays ‘had not been ideal’ and promised ‘better training continuity’ in future.

The Boeing 737-800 took off from Manchester Airport at 8.40am on March 9 with eight crew and 178 passengers on board. The inexperienced co-pilot on a training flight ‘rotated the aircraft too quickly’, causing the aircraft’s tail to strike the runway on takeoff, according to a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).