According to the Spanish Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission (CIAIAC), “once it was in contact with the approach to Santiago [de Compostela] the crew called ‘mayday’ due to a fuel emergency, as the fuel management estimate showed they would land with less than the 989 kilos stipulated as a final reserve in the operational flight plan.”
A spokesperson for the national Portuguese flag carrier assured Lusa News Agency that, on the flight on 10 October, “all protocols were followed,” and that “at no time was the safety of the operation at risk.”
“The actions of the TAP pilots were exemplary and at no time was the security of the operation at risk,” TAP stressed, noting that “the flight was carrying more than the minimum fuel required according to current international regulations.”
The TAP spokesperson said “the statement of fuel emergency was made due to a legal requirement,” as it is “obligatory whenever any flight is expected to land with fuel below 30 minutes of flight,” and that the aircraft landed with enough fuel to fly for another 29 minutes.
The Airbus A-319 landed without incident on runway 35 of Santiago airport, “with 962 kilos of fuel,” said the Spanish agency investigating the event.
Contacted by Lusa, a spokesperson for the CIAIAC said the investigation began on 10 October and declined to give further details until the final report is published.
At the end of last month, on 30 November, website Aviation Herald elaborated “the flight from Funchal to Porto (Portugal) with 75 passengers and six crew was on approach to Porto when the airport needed to introduce low visibility procedures due to weather, causing delays to arriving flights.”
According to the website, the TAP plane was placed in a hold for about 25 minutes, then commenced approach to Porto’s runway 17 “but needed to go around from low height (about 200 feet) because required visual references did not become visible.”
Information from CIAIAC’s preliminary report indicated the TAP flight considered diverting to Vigo (Spain), which was the closest alternate, but were told that Vigo had “exceeded available parking capacity and could not receive aircraft”, so made the decision to divert to Santiago de Compostela, declaring Mayday because of being low on fuel on approach.
“Spain’s CIAIAC reported that the aircraft landed with 962kg of fuel remaining, while 989kg had been their required minimum fuel reserve”, Aviation Herald said.