The Boeing 787 was flying holidaymakers from Cancun, Mexico, to Manchester in the UK when the incident took place. Photo / Getty Images
The Boeing 787 was flying holidaymakers from Cancun, Mexico, to Manchester in the UK when the incident took place. Photo / Getty Images
Despite no injuries being suffered by passengers or crew members, regulators warned of a “serious incident” after a plane landed within 20 minutes of its tanks going empty.
A Tui airliner carrying 300 people nearly ran out of fuel during a storm and had to declare “mayday”, a watchdog’s report has revealed.
The Boeing 787 was flying holidaymakers 8047km from Cancun, Mexico to Manchester in the United Kingdom when it was forced to change destination twice due to stormy weather over northwest England.
Though none of the 300 passengers and crew were injured, regulators warned coming within 20 minutes of running out of fuel was a “serious incident”.
An Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report published on Thursday also found air traffic controllers at Birmingham Airport allowed a Wizz Air flight to land in front of the Tui plane.
This almost doubled the flight path distance the Tui pilots had been told to expect, further eating into their depleted fuel reserves.
Air accident investigators looked into what happened during the December 2023 flight amid concerns vital safety margins could have been infringed.
The emergency situation occurred as a TUI Airways jet tried to land in the UK during a storm in December 2023. Photo / 123RF
‘Mayday’
Originally planned to land at Manchester, Tui flight 173’s pilots were forced by Storm Gerrit to try to reroute to East Midlands Airport near Nottingham.
While struggling with queues of up to seven aircraft waiting to land amid exceptionally strong wind gusts of 85km/h, the jet’s crew were forced to broadcast a rarely used emergency call.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday, Tomjet one-seven-three, mayday, fuel,” the captain was recorded telling air traffic control.
After being rejected from the East Midlands because the Boeing was too large for the regional airport’s facilities, the Tui jet – which was airborne for almost an hour longer than its scheduled eight-hour, 45-minute journey time – ended up landing at Birmingham instead.
After landing, the Boeing’s almost-empty fuel tanks contained only 1.2 tonnes of kerosene – much less than the minimum figure of 1.9 tonnes it should have landed with, investigators said.
‘Final reserve’
By law, airliners must carry a “final reserve” of 30 minutes of fuel, plus extra fuel on top of that in case of air traffic control delays or bad weather.
The final reserve is never supposed to be used except in extreme circumstances.
The AAIB report concluded: “While allowing for the contingencies required by the regulations, operators seek to minimise the carriage of fuel necessary for the flight, owing to the fuel burn penalty from carrying excess fuel.”
“Nevertheless, the crew identified a threat of high winds and the potential for delays on arrival at Manchester Airport.
“Incorrectly believing that the winds would dissipate from 0600 hours, the commander requested some extra fuel, equivalent to about an additional 15 minutes of fuel. Given the aircraft’s weight, the crew had the option to load significantly more fuel.
“‘The consequential reduction in fuel remaining had the effect of reducing the options available to achieve a safe landing if the aircraft had encountered windshear on the second approach.
“Safety action has been taken to clarify the process for determining and communicating airport capacity for diversions, and for the prioritisation of aircraft that have declared an emergency,” said the AAIB.
