DH8B, Kangerlussuaq Greenland, 2017

DH8B, Kangerlussuaq Greenland, 2017

Summary

On 2 March 2017, a DHC8-200 took off from Kangerlussuaq in normal day visibility without clearance and almost immediately overflew three snow clearance vehicles on the runway. The Investigation identified a number of likely contributory factors including a one hour departure delay which the crew were keen to reduce in order to remain within their maximum allowable duty period and their inability to initially see the vehicles because of the runway down slope. No evidence of crew fatigue was found; it was noted that the vehicles involved had been in contact with TWR on a separate frequency using the local language.

Description

On 2 March 2017, a Bombardier DHC8-200 (OY-GRO) being operated by Air Greenland on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kangerlussuaq to Sisimut departed from an active runway in day VMC without having received a take-off clearance and was just able to clear three snow clearing vehicles which the crew sighted ahead during their take-off roll.

Investigation

An Investigation into this Serious Incident was carried out by the Danish Accident Investigation Board. Data from the QAR was retrieved but relevant data from the SSCVR had been overwritten by the time the event was reported to the Board by Kangerlussuaq ATC a little under 2 hours after it had occurred.

The 47 year-old Captain had 14,800 hours total flying experience; the experience on type was not stated. The 44 year-old First Officer had 3,494 hours total flying experience which included 2,681 hours on the aircraft type involved. The investigated event occurred during a seven sector rostered flight duty; the position of the investigated flight in that sequence was not stated but an investigation as to whether fatigue may have been a factor in the performance of either pilot found no evidence of this.

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