C1/2008L Airliner wingtip collision with the Lappeenranta airport baggage shelter on 12 February 2008

An incident occurred at Lappeenranta airport on Tuesday, 12 February 2008 at 00:19 Finnish time when the right wingtip of a SAAB 340B airliner collided with the roof corner beam of the airport terminal baggage shelter. There were nine passengers and three crew members onboard. Accident Investigation Board Finland appointed an investigation commission for this occurrence. Investigator Ari Huhtala was named investigator-in-charge, accompanied by investigators Hannu Halonen and Asko Nokelainen as members of the commission. Dr Päivikki Eskelinen-Rönkä and Mr Esko Lähteenmäki were invited as experts to the commission.

Job Air’s scheduled flight JBR039 from Helsinki-Vantaa landed in Lappeenranta at 00:15. The flight was operated by Czech Job Air. During taxiing the flight crew reported hydraulic problems to the ATC and stopped the aircraft on the taxiway. Following this, they slowly taxied to the apron and parked a little farther away from the usual stand than normal. The flight crew began to turn off the engines by feathering the propellers. Suddenly the aircraft lurched forward towards the baggage shelter, adjacent to the terminal. The flight crew then turned the engines off by closing the fuel cocks. They managed to steer the aircraft slightly to the left, resulting in the right wingtip hitting the corner beam of the shelter roof. The aircraft came to rest with both engines turned off. The incident did not cause any injuries to persons. At 00:26 the air traffic controller at Lappeenranta reported the occurrence to the Area Control Centre (ACC) South Finland, which in turn alerted the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Finland.

Investigation revealed that a brake line swivel from the inner wheel of the left main gear was fractured and that hydraulic fluid had leaked onto the ground during taxiing. There were traces of yellow paint on the broken swivel and on the landing gear.

The morning after the incident Helsinki-Vantaa airport maintenance personnel found a broken taxiway lighting fixture at the throat to taxiway WK. The yellow shaft of this fixture was scratched and had black rubber marks on it. Investigation revealed that the wheels of the left main gear had hit the taxiway lighting fixture during its previous landing at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The result of this collision was that the brake line swivel of the left main gear’s inner wheel had been fractured.

The incident was caused by the flight crew by not being careful enough when starting the shutting down procedure of the practically brakeless aircraft’s engines too close to the terminal. This resulted in the engines momentarily providing increased thrust lurching the aircraft towards the baggage shelter.

The investigation commission issued two safety recommendations, the first advised the airline to make certain that their pilots have sufficient training with regard to abnormal situations. The second safety recommendation urged the airline to use adequately high-quality flight recorders.

Finnish aviation authority did not have anything to comment to the investigation report. Neither did Air Accident Investigation Institude of the Czech Republic and Swedish Accident Investigation Board have any comments. Finavia and the aircraft manufacturer did not have any comments. Job Air – Central Connect Airlines s.r.o. do have comments. Those comments have been taken into account in the Investigation report.

C1/2008L Report (pdf, 0.16 Mt)