Executive summary
On Thursday 22 March 2007 at 1615, A6 EBC, an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER, with 357 passengers, 16 cabin crew and 2 pilots on board, started its take off on runway 05 Right at Auckland International Airport bound for Sydney.
The pilots misunderstood that the runway length had been reduced during a period of runway works and started their take-off with less engine thrust and flap than were required. During the take-off they saw work vehicles in the distance on the runway and, realising something was amiss, immediately applied full engine thrust and got airborne within the available runway length and cleared the work vehicles by about 28 metres.
Safety issues identified included pilot checking processes, the way information critical to the safety of a flight was presented and air traffic control procedures. Safety recommendations to address these issues were made to the Director of Civil Aviation.
Related Recommendations
Require Airways to enhance ATS procedures so that controllers, in addition to what may be contained in ATIS, always unambiguougly warn pilots when runway restrictions are in effect.
That the Director of Civil Aviation satisfies himself that the aerodrome operating certificate holders for major airports in New Zealand have established adequate procedures and taken the precautions necessary to ensure that the frequency and extent of runway works are such that they do not impose unnecessary risk to aircraft operations.
Require Airways to ensure that ATIS broadcasts at all applicable airports, regardless of the means of format and transmission of ATIS, have clear word and sentence structures, are unambiguous, never imply that things are normal when they are not, contain no permanent information and conform as closely as possible to ICAO recommended standards.
Require Airways to ensure controllers always confirm that pilots acknowledge receipt of the current ATIS broadcast.
Instruct Emirates to educate all its pilots to always strictly apply normal checking procedures, to thoroughly scrutinize all the available flight information, particularly ATIS broadcasts, and to always acknowledge receipt of the ATIS.
Require Airways to enhance the Auckland International Airport AIP arrival and departure information so the words "normal operations" are not selected for use in ATS communications when any non-normal operations are in effect.