Pilot’s Poor Decision Caused Ice Diversion

The captain of a Guernsey-bound flight from Manchester, England opted not to inspect his vessel for ice prior to takeoff. This error of judgment, say authorities, caused an emergency diversion.

An investigation has found that the pilot of a plane forced to make an emergency landing because of ice contamination could have avoided diverting his craft if he had taken precautionary steps to de-ice the vessel prior to departure. The diversion occurred on March 4^th 2016 just after the Aurigny flight, bound for Guernsey in the Channel Islands, departed from Manchester Airport (MAN) in England.

A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), the body which investigates air incidents within the United Kingdom, revealed that, upon arriving from its inbound flight from Guernsey to Manchester, the plane sat on the tarmac for more than an hour in freezing, snowy conditions. The document concluded that, despite the weather, the crew of the ATR turboprop “decided no de-icing or anti-icing treatment was needed, as they did not consider the snow was settling on the aircraft, and the aircraft subsequently departed to return to Guernsey.”

However, the report indicates that an accumulation of ice on the craft’s tail affected the pilot’s ability to control the plane.

“Once at the cruising level, the commander decided he was having to exert excessive forward pressure on the control column and he elected to divert to East Midlands Airport (EMA). While descending, the aircraft flew out of icing conditions and the control difficulties dissipated. The crew assessed that ice contamination had caused the problem and they made a normal landing,” the report states.

Speaking of the findings, Nigel Moll, flight operations director for Aurigny, Guernsey’s flag carrier, told the BBC that “the incident was perceived to be the result of poor decision-making, in that the captain elected not to have the aircraft inspected.”

He added, “We have clear procedures […] in place relating to the need to de-ice an aircraft prior to departure, and our expectation, in these weather conditions, would be for the aircraft to be inspected and, most likely, de-iced. However, in this case the captain, who had many years of prior experience with other airlines, exercised his own judgement.”

Moll also told the outlet that the pilot in question is no longer with Aurigny.

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