Safety Moves Over Jet’s Damage

A HOLIDAY flight had to divert to an airport shortly after take- off following “substantial damage” to its landing gear that had not been detected following an incident the day before, an official accident report said today.

After landing safely, the Airbus A320 plane, operated by Thomas Cook Airlines, was again cleared for a nonrevenue flight without the damage being detected, the report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said.

Once more, the plane failed to reach its destination and had to return to Manchester airport.

Listing a series of mistakes, the AAIB issued recommendations to tighten procedures following the incidents in November 2006.

The first flight involved a Thomas Cook service from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Bristol on November 15 2006, with 179 passengers aboard.

Although reporting the incident, the crew had received a “thumbs up” sign from the engineer which was interpreted to mean there was no obvious damage to the aircraft.

The next day – November 16 – another flight crew reported to fly the aircraft from Bristol to Lanzarote.

The captain noted the hard-landing report from the previous day.

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