Portugal’s bureau for the investigation and prevention of accidents involving aircraft, GPIAA, has launched an investigation after a TAP plane carrying 164 people struck one of its engines on an air bridge at Lisbon airport following a glitch by an automatic guidance system.
Provisional information released by the GPIAA, issued for prevention purposes, explained that the TAP Airbus A320-214 had landed at Lisbon last Wednesday evening (24 February) after travelling from Funchal, Madeira, with 158 passengers and six crew members on board.
The aircraft was instructed by Air Traffic Control to park at stand 114 at Lisbon’s Portela Airport.
According to the GPIAA, “Entrance into the parking stand was carried out with an automatic guidance system, known as APIS (Aircraft Positioning and Information System), a laser-based technology which identifies and guides the aircraft to stop in the correct point corresponding to its type, to disembark the passengers through the bridge.”
But in this case a glitch occurred and “the APIS system did not identify the aircraft, not giving information to the pilot to stop in the position corresponding to the A320 aircraft type.”
As a result the aircraft stopped a few metres ahead of where it should have, striking the outer cover of its left-hand engine’s air inlet on the bridge “that was in parking position”.
No injuries were sustained in the incident and “passengers and crew were disembarked by the rear door of the aircraft through a stair.”
GPIAA investigators were at the scene and an investigation has been launched to identify the causes of the incident in accordance with national and international legislation.
(Culled from theportugaltimes.com)
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