Description

On 12 January 2011, an Airbus A300-600 being operated by Monarch Airlines on a passenger flight from London Gatwick to Chania, Greece experienced activations of the stall protection system after an unintended configuration change shortly after take off but following recovery, the flight continued as intended without further event. There were no abrupt manoeuvres and no injuries to the 347 occupants.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the UK AAIB. Useful Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data was available to inform the Investigation.

It was found that after engine start, selection of the slats/flaps lever to obtain the required configuration of the wing for take off had led to the appearance of a system fault. A radio call to the Operator’s engineers had produced the advice that the system might require several resets to clear the fault. This reset process involved tripping and resetting the relevant circuit breakers and then moving the slats/flaps lever to check if the slats operated. Each time, the First Officer operated the slats/flaps as directed by the aircraft commander and the indicated repetition eventually produced the desired position of ‘15/15’ free of an ECAM fault annunciation. It was estimated that the First Officer had cycled the slats/flaps lever between positions ‘0/0’ and ‘15/15’ approximately six times. The possibility of the fault recurring on takeoff and the appropriate response, beginning with the cycling of the slats/flaps lever, was discussed.