Posted on Oct 10, 2020
Luton Airport: Too many passengers at front of plane caused take-off issue
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A communication error meant too many passengers at the front of a plane caused take-off issues for the pilot, air investigators found.
An Airbus A320 was replaced with an A321 ahead of a flight from London Luton Airport in January, but an email about the change was not passed on.
It meant the passenger seating plan was not adjusted to the bigger craft.
The Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) said it landed safely and the operator had since taken action.
The A320 was due to be used for the flight from Luton to Prague in the Czech Republic on 16 January, but for "operational reasons" it was changed to an A321.
The Operational Control Centre (OCC) in Budapest, Hungary, sent an automated message to the Operational Handling Department (OHD) and Passenger Services Department (PSD) at Luton, but due to a "technical issue", it was not received.
This was noticed at the 14:05 GMT and the OCC duty manager called the OHD to let them know of the change.
An Airbus A320 was replaced with an A321 ahead of a flight from London Luton Airport in January, but an email about the change was not passed on.
It meant the passenger seating plan was not adjusted to the bigger craft.
The Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) said it landed safely and the operator had since taken action.
The A320 was due to be used for the flight from Luton to Prague in the Czech Republic on 16 January, but for "operational reasons" it was changed to an A321.
The Operational Control Centre (OCC) in Budapest, Hungary, sent an automated message to the Operational Handling Department (OHD) and Passenger Services Department (PSD) at Luton, but due to a "technical issue", it was not received.
This was noticed at the 14:05 GMT and the OCC duty manager called the OHD to let them know of the change.
Luton Airport: Too many passengers at front of plane caused take-off issue
Posted from bbc.com
Prague
London
Flying
Posted 4 y ago
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That's ungodly terrible! It seems the more hiretech our aircraft gets it still comes down to simple human error. I know it's a private pilot balancing the load is my responsibility. I don't honestly know if there's Logic on board an A320 the checks for the center of gravity. I am surprised that after to aborted takeoffs the pilot didn't get a clue and used extra thrust to get airborne. It would seem to me that might cause flight control issues while Airborne although you could trim it out. Probably. As far as an email that wasn't received, I'd love to look at the server logs and see if it was even sent. I'm glad no one was hurt. I don't know if I put that down as pilot error or not given the fact that the pilot tried twice to get it in the air. I guess because it wasn't an actual crash they're not looking that hard at the pilots.
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