Wizz Air confused the data, the A321 had problems during the flight to Prague during takeoff

Due to the type change, the plane from London to Prague had a poorly distributed center of gravity at the last minute, it took off in an emergency procedure.

The pilots of the January flight of the Wizz Air company from London to Prague solved a very unexpected problem, when the first two attempts with the Airbus A321 failed to take off at the set speed. It emerged from the published report British Air Accident Investigation Office (AAIB). A specialized server was the first to draw attention to it Aviation Herald.

It was a flight that took place on January 16 this year. According to the investigation report, the Airbus A321 took off much later and at a higher speed than the pilots expected. The reason was a change of aircraft type at the last minute: the Airbus A320 was originally supposed to fly, but the dispatchers eventually decided to deploy a larger Airbus A321-100, which has nine more rows of seats.

However, there was no change in the distribution of passengers, simply put, the front of the aircraft was too loaded. This was soon recognized by the crew: when the pilot attempted to reach the minimum take-off speed, the aircraft remained on the ground, it failed even after the second attempt. But the plane was already so fast that it could not be stopped safely on the runway. The captain therefore decided for an emergency manual take-off with maximum engine power. The plane eventually got into the air, rising at a smaller angle than usual due to an incorrectly determined center of gravity. If the emergency takeoff failed, the plane would end up off the runway and a major accident could occur.

According to the investigation report, the error occurred due to the fact that the aircraft software did not have the correct data on the number of passengers and the change of the aircraft type. The traffic managers in Budapest sent an automatic message to their colleagues in Luton, but it did not arrive “for technical reasons”. The Airbus A321 behaved like the A320.

The flight to Prague continued without problems, during the flight the crew found out the probable cause of the problems: empty rear rows. The pilots therefore informed the British authorities of this emergency after landing.

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