A NEAR disaster involving an Emirates jet at Melbourne Airport was the result of human error by two apparently alert pilots, air safety investigators believe.

The March 20 scare, when an Airbus A340 struggled to get airborne, was caused by an “inadvertent” keystroke on a flight computer.

The error meant the Dubai-bound aircraft was flown on the basis that it was carrying 100 tonnes less than it actually was, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.

Its tail hit the runway five times during a botched takeoff.

The ATSB’s interim report said the first officer “inadvertently inserted a takeoff weight of 262.9 tonnes, instead of 362.9 tonnes”, and the pilot failed to pick up the 100-tonne shortfall, leaving the aircraft with insufficient takeoff thrust.

Both pilots are no longer with the airline.

Emirates said yesterday the repairs had cost tens of millions of dollars. The airliner is back in service and twice carried passengers on the Dubai-Australia route this month.

ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan said the accident appeared to be the result of an unfortunate error.

“At this stage, based on what we know (that’s) a reasonable summary of where we stand,” he said.

“But it’s the sort of error that we want to make sure we avoid a repetition of.

“Fatigue was discounted as a factor after tests using software developed for the US Air Force.”

The interim report said both crew members “had a score that was near the top of the effectiveness range”.

The investigation revealed 17 similar incidents around the world since 1982. The ATSB will examine each one as part of a wider safety project.

Investigators are still looking at the possibility of other “human factors”, including medication or personal problems.

But there was nothing to suggest either was a factor, investigator Ian Sangston said.

Airbus announced in July that it had developed software to automatically check data entered into flight management and guidance systems.

Emirates also introduced safety improvements, including a second on-board laptop computer to independently calculate takeoff data.

Emirates head pilot Capt Alan Stealey said both the pilot and first officer of the damaged jet had said they were “well rested” before takeoff, after a 38-hour layover.

He said the ASTB findings were consistent with the airline’s own investigations.

“They showed the operating crew had a very adequate opportunity for layover and rest prior to the flight,” Capt Stealey told the Herald Sun from London.

sRecords the airline produced showed that during the seven days prior to the March 20 incident the captain and first officer had flown a respective 14.5 hours and 21.3 hours.

“They still would have been within the 100-hour limit if they had completed the flight to Dubai on March 20, the airline said in a statement.

Both Capt Stealey and carrier head of safety Tim Jenkins said the airline was in talks with Airbus and Boeing and the electronics supplier Honeywell about developing software systems to prevent similar incidents.

The ATSB report noted that Airbus was developing software that would automatically check the accuracy of pre-take-off data as it was entered into a jet’s flight management systems.

Aircraft builders and technology designers were also being asked to develop new cockpit warning systems and avionics manufacturer Honeywell believed it could produce a warning system where flight crews would be told whether an aircraft was rolling at the correct take-off speed, they said.

Source: www.heraldsun.com.au