Air Transport

A truck driver was killed on 25 January when his vehicle was hit by a Fokker 100 that overran the runway at Pau, France after a suspected bird ingestion during take-off. The aircraft was operated by Régional, and parent company Air France says none of the 50 passengers and four crew on board were hurt in the accident, which occurred at the start of a flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle.

After overrunning the 2,500m (8,200ft)-long runway at Pau-Pyrénées airport, the 15-year-old Fokker 100 (F-GMPG) came to rest on its belly at the edge of a field, near the public road where the collision with the works vehicle is thought to have occurred.

French investigation agency DGAC says that initial evidence points to a bird ingestion by

© Empics
Bird ingestion may have caused Fokker 100 to overrun at Pau airport

one of the Fokker's Rolls-Royce Tay engines during take-off, which forced the crew to make an "emergency landing in the direction of the runway". Weather data for the airport at the time of the accident, around 11:15, showed good visibility in light snow.

Iberia franchise partner Air Nostrum suffered two landing-gear incidents during domestic flights on consecutive days last week in Barcelona. On 23 January, the nose gear of a Bombardier Dash 8 Q300 (PH-DMU) failed to deploy, resulting in an emergency landing with the gear retracted. On 24 January, a Bombardier CRJ200s (EC-IBM) suffered a similar problem with one of its main landing gear units, and veered off the runway on landing. Neither incident resulted in any serious injuries.