E190 low-speed climb incident spurs Alliance to act on crews’ recurrent take-off mode error

Australian carrier Alliance Aviation has taken action to stop recurrent speed-mode selection errors by Embraer crews, after an incident in which pilots of an E190 initially failed to notice their jet was slowing as it climbed away from the Solomon Islands. The first officer, who was flying the jet from Honiara to Brisbane on 23 February last year, was not monitoring the airspeed and did not detect the deceleration, says the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. When the captain noticed the lack of acceleration, at about 134kt, they believed drag was responsible and partially retracted the flaps – from setting 4 to setting 3 – while still below minimum flap target speed. This left the aircraft with reduced lift while the airspeed continued to fall away to 131kt. The E190 has a stall-protection system which includes a low-speed ‘amber zone’ indication on the airspeed tape, with stick-shaker activation if the speed continues to drop into the ‘red zone’. It also warns the pilot with amber pitch-limit indicators on the primary flight display. Investigators state that the first officer noticed the pitch limiters, and alerted the captain, before opting to change the speed mode to ‘manual’ – only to find it was already unexpectedly set in manual mode.<br/>