Description

On 19 January 2013, an Airbus A330-300 being operated by Virgin Atlantic Airways on a passenger flight from Orlando to Manchester UK with an additional heavy crew member present on the flight deck for take offhit birds shortly after making a night take off from runway 35L in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) and high engine vibration was followed by indications of a total loss of oil pressure from the left hand engine, which was shut down. A MAYDAY was declared and an uneventful return to land was completed.

Investigation

The Investigation was delegated by the National Transportation Safety Board (USA) (NTSB) to the UK AAIB acting for the State of the Operator. Data was obtained from the 25 hour Flight Data Recorder (FDR), the 2 hour Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Digital ACMS Recorder (DAR) which provided details for the entire incident flight. It was found that the Operator’s procedures for the protection of the CVR following a Serious Incident did not extend to the FDR and that the preservation of the required data from that source was fortuitous.