C9/2003L Airliner landing with low fuel at Helsinki-Vantaa airport on 3.10.2003

On Friday 3.10.2003 at 05.56 UTC (Co-ordinated universal time) landed SK946, Airbus 330-300 with Danish registration OY-KBN, operated by Scandinavian Airlines, in Helsinki-Vantaa airport, Finland, with the fuel less than the required final reserve fuel.

The scheduled flight SK946 had departed from Chicago O’Hare airport, USA, bound for Stock-holm Arlanda, Sweden. The planned destination alternate airport was Gothenburg, Sweden. The fuel consumption en route was higher than calculated in the Operational Flight Plan of the flight. All the contingency fuel of 1300 kg and extra fuel of 200 kg was used before the top of descent. There were low visibility procedures (LVP) in force in Arlanda when SK946 entered the Stock-holm terminal control area (TMA). The commander requested a category II (CAT II) approach. The air traffic control cleared SK946 to holding, but the commander of SK946 reported that they do not have time for holding due to the fuel situation and requested a radar vectoring for ap-proach. SK946 managed to change the approach sequence with an other aircraft of the same airline. The pilots expected a short vectoring, but the capacity of the Arlanda airport was reduced due to the LVP. SK946 flew during approach in TMA 20 minutes and about 65 track miles instead of 12 minutes and about 40 NM which the pilots had expected. The pilots noticed during ap-proach that they would not, in case of a missed approach, have enough fuel to fly to the planned alternate airport Gothenburg. They decided to take Helsinki-Vantaa, Finland, as a new alternate because of 400 kg less fuel consumption. The runway visual range varied in Arlanda between 400 and 450 m during the CAT II approach, which was stable, but the pilots did not obtain visual contact to the approach or runway lights at the decision height. The commander initiated a missed approach procedure and the first officer requested a route clearance to Helsinki-Vantaa. SK946 contacted the Tampere area control centre on cruising flight level 270 and reported that the flight would have less fuel than required upon landing in Helsinki-Vantaa. The ATC issued a direct routing and an approach clearance without restrictions to runway 15. The rescue services was alarmed by the Helsinki ATC. SK946 landed uneventfully in Helsinki-Vantaa at 05.56 o’clock with the fuel of 1800 kg when the required minimum fuel was 2300 kg.

SK946 used on the flight from Arlanda to the alternate airport Helsinki-Vantaa, fuel 600 kg more than calculated in the OFP. The pilots did not pay in flight planning attention to a possible traffic delay in the destination airport Arlanda. The commander did not take enough fuel for a long ap-proach caused by the low visibility procedures which involved reduced capacity of the airport. The fuel consumption during cruise was higher than calculated and all of the contingency and extra fuel was used en route.

The investigation commission made three safety recommendations to Scandinavian Airlines. The commission recommended the airline to check the alternate fuel calculation basis used in the operational flight plans of the airline. The airline was recommended to draw the attention of their flight crews to the approach fuel calculated by the RODOS Planning system. The commanders should be recommended to take extra fuel for possible approach delay caused by the weather conditions and/or intense traffic. The airline recommended to order the flight crews to make the fuel checks also on the last part of the flights, enter the checks in the OFPs and check and mark the remaining block fuel or the total consumed fuel of every flight appropriately.

C9/2003L Report (pdf, 0.2 Mt)