Redmont Airlines Flight 2309

Redmont Airlines Flight 2309 was a regularly scheduled flight operated by an ATR 42-500. The flight experienced a battery malfunction and was mistaken as a hijacking. The pilots landed safely at London Heathrow Airport.

## Accident

### Summary

Battery malfunction mistaken as hijacking

## Background

The flight was a regularly scheduled flight, operated by an ATR 42-500 of Redmont Airlines. They had 39 passengers and 3 crew members.

### Occupants' Nationalities

Most of the occupants on the flight were Irish and British.

Nationalities
 British
 French

### Crew

The most experienced pilot on the flight was Captain Fionnuala Bran Niall Quirk, he was 43 years old by the time of the incident. He was an experienced pilot who had 6,480 hours of flight time, with 6,400 on the ATR-42. He was still in training to fly the Airbus A320 and A319.

The First Officer was Aodh Séarlas Sheenan, he was 38 years old by the time of the incident. He had accumulated 2,790 hours of flight time on the ATR-42.

The Flight Attendant was Cosette Rosalie Gautier, she is French and she was 20 years old by the time of the incident. Not much is known about her.

### Aircraft

The aircraft was a 12 years old ATR 42-500 registered as AL-HKN, it had 28,900 hours of flight time by 2016.

### Battery Issues

2-3 days before the incident, pilots reported issues with the battery when the flight computer kept alerting them of battery issues. The battery issues went unfixed as the reports never made it to the maintenance workers.

## Incident

After taking off successfully at West Ireland Knock Airport at 8:30 AM, the plane climbed to 19,000 ft to cruise, while cruising over Oxford at about 9:05 AM, the main battery broke down, also turning off the transponder and cut off communications from the pilots to Oxford ATC. After multiple calls from ATC when unanswered, the air traffic controller initiated emergency procedures. Authorities in London were alerted.

After a fighter jet took off from London to escort, and if needed, intercept. The pilots used hand to hand communication to make it out with the fighter jet's pilot meanwhile they were turning on the backup battery.

The ATR 42 landed safely at London Heathrow Airport.

## Investigation

The AAIB and AAIU launched an investigation to determine the cause of the crash and possible ways to fix it.

### ATC Recording

The ATC recording was made public on June 3th of 2017.

ATC Transcript:

Oxford ATC: Ah.. Redmont 2309, descend flight level 170.

RDM2309: Redmont 2309, descending flight level 170.

Oxford ATC: What is your current heading?

RDM2309: Current heading is ah.. 103.

Oxford ATC: Roger, turn heading 130.

RDM2309: 130, Redmont 2309.

Oxford ATC: Speedbird 938, climb, level 360, ah.. I have traffic.

Oxford ATC: And ah.. 938 turn left heading 309, direct waypoint BEL44.

BAW938: Speedbird 938, 360, heading 309, directing BEL44. Confirm?

Oxford ATC: Correct.

Oxford ATC: Current wind changes for flight level 190, wind is ah.. 27 knots, approaching from 192.

Oxford ATC: Weather clou-

\*RDM2309 disappears on radar\*

AFR8771: AirFrans 8771 mantaining 400.

Oxford ATC: Redmont 2309?

Oxford ATC: Redmont 2309, do you copy?

AFR8771: AirFrans 8771, currently reached-

Oxford ATC: AirFrans 8771, direct BALDO, contact 127 decimal 100.

AFR8771: Waypoint BALDO, contact 127 decimal 100.

Oxford ATC: Correct, goodbye.

AFR8771: Bye-bye.

Oxford ATC: RDM2309, do you copy?

\*Air traffic controller proceeds to declare an emergency(not recorded)\*

(Meanwhile at RAF Northolt)

RAF Northolt: Roger, 07, for takeoff.

07: Confirm.

\*Cuts to intercepting part\*

07: Target identified.

RAF Northolt: Communicate with him..

\*07 proceeds to communicate by hand to hand communication\*

07: Reporting, this is 07, he had just mentioned it as an error, target had just-

RAF Northolt: Roger, 07.

(Switches to Oxford ATC)

Oxford ATC: Redmont 2309, squawk 7700 if this is an emergency.

?: Is he good?(very silent)

Oxford ATC: Yeah, I got him on radar, seems like it's an emergency..(very silent)

\*RDM2309 sets squawk to 7700\*

Oxford ATC: Roger, identified..

Oxford ATC: Redmont 2309, contact London, 127 ah.. 100.

\*End of released recording\*

### Report

The AAIB and AAIU had concluded that the cause of the main battery's malfunction was due to improper maintenance from the engineers that Redmont Airlines had hired to provide maintenance for their aircraft.