Pilot error a factor in plane leaving the runway at the region’s airport

The investigation into a 2022 incident at the regional airport is complete with officials finding several factors that led to the plane leaving the runway; pilot error being one of them.

On Nov. 25, 2022, a Flair Airlines Boeing 737-800 was arriving at the Region of Waterloo International Airport when it unexpectedly overran runway 26 by approximately 400 feet coming to rest on the muddy grass. There were 134 passengers and six crew on board at the time.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) had investigators at the scene a few hours after the incident. One of them, Senior Investigator, Jon Douma.

He told 570 NewsRadio, it all began with an ongoing maintenance issue but there were several factors that led to the incident.

“The issue was being managed by disabling the one thrust reverser. We had a flight crew who had been flying all night long, so there is a possibility of fatigue influencing the occurrence as well. The weather was not great on the approach. Then of course, the pilot pressed the wrong button which put the crew in a situation where the aircraft behaved in a way they did not expect it too.”

He said the flight crew did a “masterful” job guiding the plane onto the grass.

“The were able to get the airplane slowed down to a point where the runway overrun did not result in any injury or really, any damage to the aircraft.”

Douma said essentially what happened was while one of the engines was in reverse to slow it down, the other engine, which was experiencing the maintenance issue, thrust forward. It’s akin to someone in a rowboat pushing on one oar while pulling on the other.

The report said the pilot had intended to disengage the autothrottle but hit the wrong button increasing thrust.

As a result, Flair Airlines has modified its operating procedures to better support the existing requirements to disengage both the autopilot and autothrottle at the same time.

“The main thing to realize is that this type of thing doesn’t happen because of one factor,” said Douma. “It’s always a huge combination of various different things happening, so you really can not narrow it down to one thing or one action.”