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| Title: | Loss of airspeed displays, Serious incident, 05.04.1998, near Frankfurt/Main Airport, to an Airbus A320-200 |
| Micro summary: | This Airbus A320-200 lost its airspeed cues in both primary flight displays, standby instrumentation, and a variety of other systems. |
| Event Time: | 1998-04-05 at Unknown |
| File Name: | 1998-04-05-DE.pdf |
| Publishing Agency: | Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation (BFU) |
| Publishing Country: | Germany |
| Report number: | 5X002-0/98 |
| Pages: | 3 |
| Site of event: | Holding pattern, Frankfurt |
| Departure: | Saint-Exupery International Airpot, Lyon, France |
| Destination: | Frankfurt/Main, Germany |
| Airplane Type(s): | Airbus A320-200 |
| Flight Phase: | Descent |
| Registration(s): | Unknown |
| Operator(s): | Unknown |
| Type of flight: | Revenue |
| Occupants: | Unknown |
| Fatalities: | 0 |
| Serious Injuries: | 0 |
| Minor/Non-Injured: | Unknown |
| Other Injuries: | 0 |
| Executive Summary: | On a scheduled flight from Lyon to Frankfurt in a holding pattern the airspeed indications in both primary flight displays (PFD) and for a short time in the standby indication system failed. In conjunction with this failure, the automatic flight control systems switched off and the electronic centralized aircraft monitor showed several warning and error messages. The pilot-in-command immediately took over the controls from the candidate captain who up to the moment of the occurrence was the pilot flying. When he had stabilized the aeroplane manually at an altitude of 10000 ft on the basis of pitch angle and powerplant output (PITCH and POWER), the airspeed indications reappeared on all three instruments. As a precaution, the PIC manually switched the pitot tube heating on (PROBE/WINDOW HEAT on the overhead panel from AUTO to ON). At the moment of the incident, IMC with severe icing, rain showers and turbulence were prevailing. For the landing, the autopilot and autothrottle were available again. Conclusions The investigation has revealed that all airspeed indication systems had failed for a short time due to an occlusion of the pressure ports as a result of ice formation on the pitot tubes. The result of the investigation confirms the assumption based on past reports by several operators on varying/failed irspeed indications that the design of the pitot tubes does not allow unrestricted flight operations with the aeroplane type in heavy rain and under severe icing conditions.Since the AOM and other documents for the aeroplane type A 320 do not define restrictions for flights under severe icing conditions, the incident is finally due to a type design problem. |
| Learning Keywords: | Operations - Icing |
| Operations - Training Flight | |
| Systems - Flight Instruments | |
| Systems - Pitot/Static System |
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