C32/1997L Aircraft Incident at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Finland, on 7 December 1997

On Sunday, December 7, 1997 departed the flight SK705 from Helsinki to Stockholm. There were 65 passengers and 5 crew members on board, the aircraft used was DC-9-81 and the flight was operated by SAS. The aircraft was refuelled at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport before the departure. The fuel had to be transferred from the center tank to the left main tank to divide the quantities of fuel equally.

The aircraft departed normally, however, as soon as it was in the air, it banked to the left so that a pilot had to turn the control wheel 70 degrees to balance the plane. The pilot noticed the cause of the bank and immediately returned to the airport. An error was done after refuelling, the transfer of the fuei had been continued until the left main tank was full.

The Accident Investigation Board (AIB), Finland was notified at the same day the incident and it appointed chief air accident investigator Seppo Hämäläinen and chief inspector Pertti Nenonen to investigate the incident.

The incident was also announced to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board, Norway and they appointed technical inspector Per Stokke from SAS to represent Norway.

The draft of the incident report was sent for a statement to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board, Norway. The Board did not have any comments on the draft.

C32/1997L Report (pdf, 0.07 Mt)