With smoke inside their Fairchild Metro 23, the Skippers Aviation flight crew bypassed several items on emergency checklists before returning safely to their departure airport in Perth, Western Australia, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says. None of the 14 people in the airplane was injured and the Metro was not damaged, but, according to ATSB Director Stuart Macleod, the missed checklist items “potentially increased risk.”
The ATSB said that at various times during the Aug. 15, 2024, serious incident, the first officer (FO), who was the pilot monitoring, failed to don an oxygen mask, the left bleed air system was not switched off when required, and the landing gear was not extended at the appropriate time.
“The ATSB determined the high workload associated with the in-flight response to the smoke in the cockpit and wing overheat indication adversely affected the flight crew’s performance, leading to errors in flight path adherence, checklist comp…
