Plane evacuated on runway at Cornwall Airport Newquay

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has now published the findings of its ‘serious incident’ report, into what happened on October 7, 2022.

The Beech 400A (N709EL) landed in Newquay at 11am, with two crew members and one passenger onboard, having taken off from East Midlands Airport.

Although the plane came into land drifting sideways, and experienced rapid deceleration on touch down, there were no injuries reported.

All three people onboard exited the aircraft via the cabin door, onto the runway.

The AAIB report notes that the mainwheel tyres were found to be fully deflated and there was smoke coming from them, but there was no fire. The airport fire service arrived shortly afterwards.

While both tyres were intact, they had partially separated from their wheel rims and the fuse plugs on both mainwheels were found to have melted, with both brake units seized.

Both mainwheel tyres were found to be fully deflated (Image: AAIB)

The report states: “Immediately after touchdown the flight crew noticed the deceleration was greater than normal.

“Reverse thrust and speed brakes were applied, and as the aircraft slowed below about 50 kt the aircraft started to drift towards the right side of the runway.

“A combination of weathercocking into the wind and applying left pedal brought the aircraft back to the runway centreline where it came to rest angled about 45 degrees to the left of the centreline, with the mainwheel tyres deflated and the brakes seized.

“The rapid deceleration on touchdown was caused by either the tyres having already deflated due to the fuse plugs having melted, or the brakes being seized, or a combination of both.”

It goes on to find that this was the result of the brakes having been heated during the take-off run, because the parking brake had been left on with partial pressure applied.

“It is possible the commander set the parking brake subconsciously which, combined with the distraction of negotiating the clearance with air traffic control, resulted in him not releasing the parking brake before taxiing onto the runway,” the report adds.

The aircraft on the runway at Newquay after the incident (Image: AAIB)

The 40-year-old commander, who had 5,263 hours of flying experience, also told the investigation that historic problems with releasing the parking brake, after it has been applied to hot brakes, had conditioned him to only apply the sufficient brake pressure required for the situation when manoeuvring on the ground and applying the parking brake.

He added that even when the brakes were not hot, he had experiences in the past where “considerable force” was needed to release the parking brake at the holding point, and that applying only sufficient brake pressure helped him to avoid this issue.

The report found the aircraft type was not fitted with any light or caption to indicate when the parking brake was applied, and it did not have an aural or visual warning to alert the pilot that the parking brake was on when full power was applied.

It said either of these features could have helped prevent a take-off with the parking brake applied. However, as the Beech 400A is no longer manufactured there is no scope for requiring a modification for future aircraft being built.

However, the AAIB did make safety recommendation that checklists for the Beech 400 series of aircraft should be amended to include a ‘release parking brake’ item in the ‘Before Take-off’ checklist.