Air Transat Flight 236 was a transatlantic flight bound for Lisbon, Portugal, from Toronto, Canada, that lost all engine power while flying over the Atlantic Ocean in the dark on August 24, 2001. The Airbus A330 ran out of fuel because of a fuel leak caused by improper maintenance. Captain Robert Piché, 48, and First Officer Dirk DeJager, 28, glided the plane to a successful emergency landing in the Azores, saving the lives of all 306 people (293 passengers and 13 crew) on board. This was also the longest passenger aircraft glide without engines, gliding for nearly . Following this unusual aviation accident, this aircraft was nicknamed the "Azores Glider".

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an Airbus A330-243 registered as C-GITS. The aircraft was just over two years old and was equipped with two Rolls-Royce Trent 772B-60 engines.

Accident

Flight 236 took off from Toronto at 00:52 (UTC) on Friday, August 24, 2001 (local time: 20:52 (ET) on Thursday, August 23), bound for Lisbon, Portugal, with 293 passengers and 13 crew on board. The flight was flown by Captain Robert Piché, who had 16,800 hours of flight experience (with 796 of them on the Airbus A330),

At 04:38 UTC (almost four hours into the flight), the aircraft began to leak fuel through a fracture that had developed in a fuel line to the no. 2 (right) engine downstream of the fuel/oil heat exchanger.

At 05:36 UTC, the pilots received a warning of fuel imbalance.

At 05:45 UTC, the pilots decided to divert to Lajes Air Base in the Azores. Initially there was a 14 degree heading deviation from their assigned heading of 230 degrees magnetic caused by the autopilot being in true heading mode. After 2 minutes Santa Maria Oceanic air traffic control radioed "Transat 236 heavy maintain 230 magnetic heading". This transmission was not acknowledged, but the aircraft turned to the correct heading. They declared a fuel emergency with Santa Maria Oceanic air traffic control three minutes after the heading was corrected. which was the largest fine in Canadian history.

The conclusions reached in the accident report revealed that:

  • The flight crew did not detect that a fuel problem existed until the Fuel ADV advisory was displayed and the fuel imbalance was noted on the Fuel ECAM page.
  • The crew did not correctly evaluate the situation before taking action.
  • The flight crew did not recognize that a fuel leak situation existed and carried out the fuel imbalance procedure from memory, which resulted in the fuel from the left tanks being fed to the leak in the right engine.
  • Conducting the fuel imbalance procedure by memory meant that the crew did not read the Caution note in the relevant checklist. Doing so might have caused the crew to consider timely actioning of the fuel leak procedure.
  • Although there were a number of other indications that a significant fuel loss was occurring, the crew did not conclude that a fuel leak situation existed – not actioning the fuel leak procedure was the key factor that led to the fuel exhaustion.

Aftermath

Following the accident investigation, the French Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) issued F-2002-548B, requiring a detailed fuel-leak procedure in the flight manual and the need for crews to be aware of this. This was later cancelled and replaced by F-2005-195. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued AD 2006-02-01, effective February 3, 2006, requiring new airplane flight manual procedures to follow in the event of a fuel leak for Airbus Model A330 and A340 aircraft.

The accident led to the DGAC and FAA issuing an airworthiness directive (AD), requiring all operators of Airbus models A318, A319, A320 and A321 narrow-body aircraft to revise their flight manuals, stressing that crews should ensure that any fuel imbalance is not caused by a fuel leak before opening the cross-feed valve. The AD required all airlines operating these Airbus models to make revisions to the flight manuals before any further flights were allowed. The FAA gave a 15-day grace period before enforcing the AD. Airbus also modified its computer systems; the on-board computer now checks all fuel levels against the flight plan. It now gives a clear warning if fuel is being expended beyond the specified fuel consumption rate of the engines. Rolls-Royce also issued a bulletin advising of the incompatibility of the relevant engine parts.

thumb|"The Azores Glider" at [[Toronto Pearson International Airport in 2016]]

This was the longest passenger aircraft glide without engines.

Margaret McKinnon, a postdoctoral psychology student at Baycrest Health Sciences in Toronto at the time, was a passenger on her honeymoon on Flight 236. She and her colleagues recruited 15 other passengers in a study of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), published in August 2014 in the academic journal Clinical Psychological Science, which compared details recalled by passengers with PTSD with those recalled by passengers without PTSD and with a control group.

  • The events of Flight 236 were featured in "Flying on Empty", a season-one (2003) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday (called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the U.S. and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and elsewhere). The program begins with a title card announcing "This is a true story. The flight crew, Airbus, and Air Transat declined to take part. The reconstruction is based on expert opinion and known facts about the flight."
  • The flight was also included in a Mayday sixth season (2007) Science of Disaster special titled "Who's Flying the Plane?"
  • MSNBC produced a report on the incident with the title "On a Wing and a Prayer", which first aired in the U.S. on August 7, 2005.
  • The story of Robert Piché is depicted in the 2010 French Canadian biographical drama film Piché: The Landing of a Man culminating with the events on Flight 236. Captain Piché is portrayed by both Genie Award-winning actor Michel Côté and his son Maxime LeFlaguais.

See also

  • US Airways Flight 1549, the "Miracle on the Hudson" – glided after both engines were disabled by a bird strike
  • Air Canada Flight 143, the "Gimli Glider" – glided after running out of fuel
  • TACA Flight 110 – glided after water ingestion in both engines in a storm
  • List of airline flights that required gliding

References

Informational notes

Citations

  • Accident Investigation Final Report from the Portuguese Aviation Accidents Prevention and Investigation Department (Archive, Archive #2, <!--Archive 1, -->Alternate Link <!-- Archive #2-->)
  • Report profile
  • "Air Transat Flight TS 236 of August 24, 2001 – Air Transat welcomes investigation findings and recommendations" (Archive Archive #2). Air Transat. October 17, 2004.
  • News report on logistical issues after the incident
  • "Grateful passengers praise Air Transat pilot." CBC News<!--Old URL: http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2001/08/25/world/airtransat_010825-->. Sunday August 26, 2001.
  • Captain Robert Piché's Official Website
  • PTSD clues gleaned from passengers on terrifying flight
  • This plane RAN OUT of FUEL in the middle of the OCEAN!! on YouTube

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