Accident Report: Thomas Cook pilot misses the aircraft weight by 17 tons on takeoff

December 8, 2011 — Thomas Cook Airlines (UK)

Thomas Cook Airlines (Thomas Cook.com) (UK) Airbus A321-211 G-SMTJ (msn 1972) MAN (Gunter Mayer), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Thomas Cook Airlines (Thomas Cook.com) (UK) (Manchester) had an incident at Manchester on April 29, 2011 involving one of its Airbus A321s. The accident report has now been issued by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

According to this report by Mail Online, “223 passengers on board narrowly avoided disaster after the captain miscalculated its weight by 17 tons.

The Airbus A321 was due to fly from Manchester airport to Heraklion in Crete when the captain was asked for its takeoff weight – and read off the wrong figure.

As a consequence the aircraft took off without enough thrust or speed which could have caused the pilot to lose control, endangering all those on board.

Luckily, the pilot actually flying the plane noticed that something was wrong, and made adjustments which averted disaster.”

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Gunter Mayer.

Thomas Cook Slide Show: CLICK HERE

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