SA 03: Simulator training
In the course of the safety investigation concerning the serious incident involving the commercial aircraft Airbus A330-343, HB-JHB, on 21 November 2014 near Basel (BS), the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) identified a safety deficit and issued safety advice N° 3 in its final report no. 2269.
Target group(s)
flight crews, airline training instructors and manufacturer of training devices
Safety advice
The aviation operators shall take steps to include pressurization problems more broadly in flight simulator exercises. Flight crews shall, thereby, not remain focused solely on decompression and emergency descent during pressurization problems.
Sicherheitsdefizit
The investigation has shown that the flight crew immediately thought of a possible decompression when both cabin pressure controllers failed and consequently, considered an emergency descent which was initiated shortly after.
Carrying out the emergency descent and processing the corresponding checklist used up precious time. During this time, the cabin altitude fell below -2060 ft. By not opening the outflow valves manually, the cabin pressure was allowed to build up to the maximum value, hence triggering the safety valve.