Boeing 737 flight escapes deadly nosedive

by Stevie Smith - Mar 4 2009, 16:30

January 12 of 2009 could have been a truly calamitous day for the people of Norfolk in the UK after it was revealed yesterday that an easyJet post-maintenance test flight travelling over the region escaped a deadly nosedive a matter of moments ahead of smashing into the ground.

According to officials from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), “confusion between the two pilots” aboard the Boeing 737 airliner resulted in the plane plunging into a steep and “serious” dive that saw the plane losing altitude at a frightening rate of 350 feet per second.

Moreover, the pilots found themselves suddenly battling to regain control of the plummeting jet during a routine system test involving the temporary disabling of the plane’s hydraulic ailerons, elevators and rudder.

The hydraulic examination suddenly became a rocketing fight for survival when incorrect elevator balance tab settings made during a prior test flight forced the plane into a steep plunging dive from 15,000 feet.

With the pilots unable to pull the Boeing 737 out its dive, despite exerting “considerable force” through the controls, the captain made the decision to roll the plane left through more than 90 degrees – correcting the problem with only 5,600 feet (or approximately 15-16 seconds) to spare before impact.

“The absence of a formal post-flight debrief and formal written record resulted in the balance tabs, attached to the elevators of the aircraft, being adjusted in the opposite sense to that identified as necessary by the test flight,” outlined the AAIB report with regard to the previous test.

“The aircraft was therefore significantly out of trim during the post-maintenance test flight,” it added, “and it was that which initiated the pitch-down incident.”

easyJet has suspended its test flights while reviews are carried out into the maintenance procedures employed across its fleet of aircraft.

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