Airbus A319-111 N924FR

Summary

On 23 October 2006 at about 20:00 local time, a Airbus A319-111 registered N924FR, operated by Frontier Airlines Inc, was involved in an incident near Denver, Colorado, United States. 136 people were on board and nobody was injured. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

23 October 2006 at 20:00

Classification

Incident

Location

Denver, Colorado, United States

Nearest airport

Denver Intl (DEN)

Coordinates

39.8614, -104.6731

Aircraft

Airbus A319-111

Registration

N924FR

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Frontier Airlines Inc

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Los Angeles → Denver

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DEN07IA027

Nobody was injured.

The inadvertent activation of the priority pushbutton on the sidestick by the first officer resulting in a nose down pitch and loss of aircraft control during the landing flare.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

During the landing flare approximately 10 feet above ground level, the aircraft pitched nose down while the captain applied aft sidestick force. The rate that the nose descended seemed to be commanded and extremely smooth. The first officer wondered if he could have accidentally bumped his sidestick, but he did not think that action occurred. The captain landed the airplane with the main landing gear touching down first, and the captain's sidestick was once again responsive. The entire event took no longer than 2 seconds. No electronic centralized aircraft monitor (ECAM) warnings or other indications were noticed by the flight crew. Review of the digital flight data recorder (DFDR) data revealed that the captain's sidestick (left) was inoperative for approximately 1 second during the landing flare. During that time, the first officer's sidestick (right) pitch was in the neutral position. Less than one second after the captain's sidestick went to inoperative, both sidestick pitch positions went to approximately 14-16 degrees aft. Pitch data revealed a decrease in pitch of approximately 2 degrees during the event. The airframe manufacturer provided the following analysis of the incident: "Captain was Pilot Flying (PF). First officer was Pilot Non Flying (PNF). Manual approach and flare input from the PF were nominal. But, it appeared that [the] PNF take-over and priority pushbutton was pushed inadvertently for approximately 1 to 2 seconds during flare. As a warning, white arrow pointing to the right was displayed in front of captain (PF) and F/O (first officer) green light was lit in front of F/O (PNF). With the F/O priority button pressed, EFCS (Electrical Flight Control System) disregarded the captain inputs to the benefit of the F/O one. During this time, as no order (neutral) was applied on F/O sidestick, aircraft elevators returned to neutral position, leading pitch attitude to be reduced by 1.5 degrees. EFCS switched back to captain sidestick when priority switch was released, and captain resumed flare and landing uneventfully." According to operator, the non-flying pilot's hand should not be on the sidestick during critical phases of flight, such as the landing flare; however, the non-flying pilot should be in a position to takeover control, if required.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.