A pilot’s prosthetic arm became detached from his body as the plane was coming in to land, according to an accident report.
The 46-year-old pilot was flying a FlyBe Dash 8 aircraft carrying 47 passengers from Birmingham to Belfast City Airport on 12 February when the incident occurred.
He was landing the plane manually in windy conditions, when his left artificial arm became detached during the flare manoeuvre shortly before touchdown, which left him without control of the aircraft.
The pilot decided that it was too late to give the co-pilot control in the conditions and decided to move his right hand from the power levers and onto the yoke to regain control of the aircraft. “With power still applied and possibly a gust affecting the aircraft, a normal touchdown was followed by a bounce, from which the aircraft landed heavily” said the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report.
The plane landed heavily, but no-one was injured and the plane was not damaged in the landing.
The pilot said that he will be more careful about checking his prosthetic arm in the future and bried future co-pilots in advance about the possibility of them having to take over at short notice.
In a statement, FlyBe said that the safety of the passengers and crew had not been compromised and the senior captain was one of its “most experienced and trusted pilots”.
