Both pilots of a BAe 146 freighter aircraft that struck its tail on landing at Brisbane Airport did not meet the operator's minimum experience requirements, an ATSB investigation report details.
The four-engined BAe 146-300 aircraft was being operated on an ASL Airlines Australia freight flight from Sydney to Brisbane on the morning of 25 June 2024. During descent into Brisbane, weather conditions worsened with visibility reducing to about 1,000 m in fog.
The crew were conducting an instrument approach for runway 19L, using the autopilot, and visually identified the high‑intensity approach lighting at about 220 ft. Flight data showed the first officer, who was pilot flying, disconnected the autopilot at about 110 ft.
The first officer later reported to the ATSB they then experienced a very high workload, became 'overwhelmed', and that their scan pattern broke down.
"Disoriented and having likely lost situation awareness, the first officer did not identify the aircraft's pitch was increasing, while airspeed was decreasing, and did not correct the resulting sink rate prior to touchdown," ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
The aircraft touched down with a high pitch angle and a vertical acceleration of about 2.4 g, resulting in its tail striking the runway, damaging the tail strike indicator and surrounding panels.
Prior to the landing, the captain had become preoccupied with remaining fuel and a belief visibility would continue to worsen, resulting in a sense of urgency to land on the first approach.
Repeated communications about the remaining fuel and deteriorating conditions from the captain placed pressure on the first officer to commit to a landing.
"The captain had limited multi-crew command experience, which likely reduced their capacity to include the first officer in the decision‑making process, consider the need to take over as pilot flying, or command a go‑around when the aircraft entered an undesired state during landing," Mr Mitchell said.
The investigation found ASL Airlines employed and promoted pilots earlier than the prescribed minimum experience hours without additional controls in place. Both the captain and first officer had been appointed to their positions despite not first meeting the operator's minimum experience requirements.
The operator has addressed this safety issue with a range of actions, including changes to its operations manual, and the introduction of additional checks prior to flight crew being checked to line.
"Current pilot shortages have meant operators are employing crew with less experience than has previously been expected," Mr Mitchell said.
"Lower experience levels can be mitigated with additional training, as well as rostering controls that avoid pairing less experienced crew together."
You can find here the final report: Ground strike involving British Aerospace BAe 146-300, VH-SAJ, at Brisbane Airport, Queensland, on 25 June 2024
