BA flight declares MAYDAY over London after two stall warnings

BA flight declares MAYDAY over London after two stall warnings

A British Airways plane found itself ‘seconds from disaster’ over Canary Wharf after a problem in the cockpit, it has been claimed.

Flight BA919 – an Airbus A320 flying from Dusseldorf to Heathrow – was flying at 4,000ft when it suffered an air data systems failure on July 6.

According to the Aviation Herald, following the initial stall warning, the crew declared a PAN PAN – an international radio signal meaning there is an urgent but not life-threatening emergency – and performed a go-around.

Upon its second approach, another stall warning occurred at around 3,000ft, prompting what investigators described as an abrupt recovery manoeuvre.

The aircraft descended to about 2,200ft before returning to the approach path.

The crew upgraded the emergency call to ‘mayday’ before the aircraft landed safely half an hour after the initial turn-around.

The incident has reportedly been classified as a loss of control in flight and described as pilot-induced.

Opening its investigation, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said: ‘During the approach phase, an ADR failure triggered a stall warning; the crew flew the aircraft under alternate law and declared a PAN.

‘A further stall warning occurred at 3,000 feet, accompanied by a potentially abrupt recovery manoeuvre, resulting in the PAN being changed to a MAYDAY. The aircraft landed without further incident.’

The first officer tried to fix the problem, but when he was unable to, the captain – who has since been put on stress leave – had to physically intervene, according to The Sun.

One source told the outlet it was the most serious near miss in the UK in years.

They said: ‘To recover from this position is difficult, especially so low to the ground.

‘It is unheard of for a captain to physically intervene in the cockpit.’

Senior figures described how the plane almost suffered a ‘hull loss’ – aviation language for serious damage to or the destruction of an aircraft.

The AAIB is now looking into the near miss and the Civil Aviation Authority refused to comment on an ongoing review.

BA has been contacted for comment.

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