A “serious incident” was declared after a Tui flight from Mexico with almost 300 passengers on board ran low on fuel after being forced to divert twice when returning to the UK.
A mayday alert was sounded after “significant weather disruption” forced the Boeing 787 to re-route from Manchester to East Midlands airport before eventually landing at Birmingham instead while issuing a “fuel emergency”.
Air accident investigators said the aircraft crossed the Atlantic from Cancun to Manchester but diverted to Birmingham due to high wind conditions, having been denied the option to divert to the nominated airport of East Midlands due to capacity constraints
The first attempt to land at Birmingham was aborted due to a windshear alert issued from equipment in the cockpit.
The Tui aircraft then had to wait to allow a Wizz Air flight to land first despite a declaring a “mayday, mayday, mayday fuel” warning.
An air traffic controller was faced with a “complex and high workload scenario” which resulted in the opportunity to prioritise the 787 being missed, an Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report found.
“The serious incident was the result of the aircraft declaring a fuel emergency on executing a missed approach in response to windshear on final approach to BHX [Birmingham],” the AAIB said.
The aircraft finally landed with less than two-thirds of its planned minimum fuel level despite 15 minutes-worth of extra fuel having been loaded in Cancun to account for the possibility of a diversion.
“A fuel emergency was declared and the aircraft subsequently landed below final reserve fuel after its second approach,” the AAIB said.
The 787 Dreamliner was on an overnight flight across the Atlantic four days before Christmas 2023, with high winds forecast over northern England.
It landed safely and the 291 passengers and 10 crew were unharmed
Safety action in relation to diversions and aircraft emergencies has been implemented by both East Midlands and Birmingham airports following their own internal investigations, according to the report.
“The actions taken addressed the process for determining and communicating airport capacity for diversions, and prioritisation for aircraft that have declared an emergency,” the AAIB noted.
The report concluded: “The serious incident was the result of strong winds generating difficult conditions at the time of the arrival of the flight into the UK.
“The aircraft had departed Cancun with 15 minutes of additional fuel, although significant extra capacity was available. Having diverted from MAN to BHX the aircraft made a missed approach due to a windshear warning on final approach.
“This was followed by an extended track flown for a further approach because an opportunity to prioritise G-TUIB [Tui aircraft] for an expeditious landing was missed.
“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.”