Airline crews should have more training on go-arounds, under recommendations issued this week by Russian investigators probing the March 19 crash of a Boeing 737 that killed all 62 people on board. The Interstate Aviation Committee’s interim report (PDF) on the crash at Rostov-on-Don airport details the FlyDubai jet’s flight path during the crew’s attempts to land in high winds and severe turbulence that had forced other flights to divert to alternates. After a first go-around due to a wind-shear alert, the jet entered a hold before a second approach to the airport. On final, data recorders indicated sudden changes in airspeed and acceleration as the pilot flying applied forward pressure on the control column then back pressure, then forward pressure. The jet was in a 50-degree nose-down attitude when it smashed into the ground at well over 300 knots, the report said.
The report also recommends additional analyzing of reports from previous accidents in Russia during go-around attempts, specifically the Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 crash in 2013 at Kazan airport and the 2006 crash of an Armavia Airbus A320 at Sochi airport. It also recommends looking at the findings of a 2013 study (PDF) by the French air safety investigation agency BEA. The study examined accidents related to go-arounds and called for enhanced training as well as improving simulators to make them more effective in such scenarios.
