The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board (TTSB) releases final report on the investigation of a Far Eastern Air Transport flight FE3060 aircraft deviated runway during landing on runway of Taichung Airport.

On April 20, 2019, a Far Eastern Air Transport MD-82 scheduled passenger aircraft, flight number FE3060, registration number B-28082, departed from Penghu Airport to Taichung Airport, with 2 flight crew members, 2 cabin crew members and 72 passengers, totally 76 people on board. When the aircraft executed approach at Taichung Airport, the flight crews found thunderstorms with lighting in front of the route and the airport. The flight crews judged that the situation would not change shortly, while could contact the ground, they believe that the visibility should be acceptable, therefore decided executed approach continually. The aircraft deviated from the runway during the landing roll and the on board persons were all safe

 According to the Transportation Occurrence Investigation Act of the Republic of China, and referring to Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the TTSB, an independent transportation occurrence investigation agency, started the investigation. The organization or agency been invited to join the investigation team included: Civil Aeronautics Administration, Ministry of Transportation and Communications and Far Eastern Air Transport. The Final Report was reviewed and approved by TTSB’s 13th Board Meeting on July 3, 2020.

Findings related to probable causes:

1. The flight crew did not fully correct the aircraft's left deviation before landing. They did not see the centerline and touched down on the left side of the runway. The appropriate wet runway landing techniques was not applied, and the flight crew did not properly correct the aircraft's left deviation tendency after landing.

Findings related to risk:

1.The current CRM training and assessment of the Far East Air Transport  were not effectively meet the objective of the training, which affected the flight crew's ability to assess relevant risks, threats, situation awareness, communicate and the decisions making during the flight.

2. The runway of Taichung Airport has no center line lights and poor runway drainage function, which affecting the landing operation of the aircraft under poor weather condition.

Safety Recommendations

To Far Eastern Air Transport:

1. Enhance the landing operation training of flight crew on wet/contaminated runway.
2. Review the CRM training and assessment to ensure it may effectively enhance the risks and threats management of the flight crew.
3. Review the completeness of the relevant manuals related to the wet/contaminated runway.

To Civil Aeronautics Administration, Ministry of Transportation and Communications:

1. Supervise the Airlines to enhance their landing operation training of flight crew on wet/contaminated runway.
2. Supervise the Airlines to ensure their CRM training and assessment of the flight crew.

The final report is in Chinese only and available for download at http://www.TTSB.gov.tw

Vivi Yang, Executive Officer

Tel: +886-2-7727-6217

E-mail: viviy2314@ttsb.gov.tw