The flight crew of a Bombardier Challenger 601 landed at Oxford Airport in the UK despite realizing that the aircraft was on an excessively high rate of descent and getting a ground proximity warning alert, according to a serious incident report published by the country’s Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) late on Friday. Investigators concluded that the captain should have followed the operations manual requirement for a maximum gradient climb or a go-around.
The report highlighted differing accounts from the pilot and co-pilot as to how the event unfolded, with the latter saying that he had urged the captain to go around. The investigation concluded that “fatigue and miscommunication were contributory factors” in the incident, which did not result in any damage to the aircraft.
The Challenger, which is registered to Volare Aviation, was arriving in Oxford after a flight from Guernsey on March 22. The 50-year-old captain, who was a freelance pilot, had 8,550 flight hours of past experience, including around 2,000 on the aircraft type. The co-pilot was employed by the operator.
The AAIB report concluded that investigators had insufficient information to explain why the high rate of descent occurred. It said, “it was likely to be due to the way the flight management system was used to fly the approach.”