Ryanair 737 Max crew pushed jet into steep descent after go-around altitude breach

Ryanair has introduced a ‘discontinued approach’ procedure after a serious incident at London Stansted during which a Boeing 737 Max 8-200 breached its go-around altitude, leading the crew to push the jet into a steep descent. The aircraft pitched to 17.7° nose-down in instrument conditions, reaching a descent rate of 8,880ft/min, triggering ‘sink rate’ and ‘pull up’ alerts from the ground-proximity warning system. According to the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, the aircraft reached 295kt with ‘flap 5’ configuration – above the 250kt speed limit for this setting – and descended to 1,740ft above ground before recovering. The crew had planned an ILS approach to Stansted’s runway 22 on 4 December last year. As the pilots attempted to intercept the glideslope from above, however, the approach became unstable and the crew opted to execute a go-around 3.6nm from touchdown, at an altitude of 1,940ft. The autopilot disengaged and the captain manually pitched the aircraft nose-up, following the flight directors, while the autothrottle increased thrust and the first officer cleaned the configuration.<br/>