Description

On 20 December 2019, an Airbus A318 (F-GUGD) being operated by Air France on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Paris Orly to Toulon-Hyères as AF7512 in day IMC was seriously mismanaged during an autopilot-controlled ILS glideslope capture from above and two successive alpha floor protections were triggered before a sustained recovery was achieved and the aircraft positioned for a second successful approach.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the French Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Agency, the BEA using relevant FDR and recorded ATC data.

The Captain had initially joined Air France as a First Officer on the Airbus A320 and accumulated approximately 2,300 hours on type. He had then moved to the Boeing 777 fleet also as a First Officer and accumulated just over 10,000 hours on that type before gaining his command on the A320 at the beginning of 2019. The First Officer had joined Air France ten months prior to the investigated event and completed his type conversion training six months prior to it and had 400 hours on type out of a total of 5,500 hours. 

What Happened

With the First Officer as PF, the flight was working Toulon APP and approaching from the northwest. It was number 1 inbound and had been cleared for continuous descent to 1,900 feet QNH. The crew were informed that the surface wind was 150°/12-19 knots with runway 23 in use but given the presence of BKN (broken) cloud at 1,700 feet aal, the controller suggested that the circling approach necessary for that runway might be “a bit tight”.