A passenger plane with nearly 300 holidaymakers came within 20 minutes of almost no fuel anymore in the air.
The Boeing 787-8, flying from Cancun in Mexico, would arrive at Manchester Airport in December 2023 during Storm Pia's 100 MPH Wind.
The pilot prepared for the country and was informed that he was behind seven planes that waited for the circumstances to relieve so that they could land safely.
Air traffic controllers could not give him an estimated time to land, so the 62-year-old commander chose to distract to East Midlands Airport.
East Midlands said, however, that they could not handle a plane of his size, so he was diverted to Birmingham.
Extreme wind forced him to break down the first landing attempt. He circled back to go a second time, a “Mayday” explained because the jet ran dangerously little fuel.
At that stage, the Jet Die was sent on a detour of 28 miles, despite the explanation of a fuel case, not flying to another airport.
A safety report issued today by the AIR Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said that the aircraft, with 291 passengers and 10 crew members, was hit with only 1,250 kg of fuel.
With the plane that burned 60.5 kg per minute, it would probably not have had any fuel within 20 minutes – hardly enough time to land if it had to go a second time because of the strong wind.
According to the safety rules, it should have landed with fuel of 1,911 kg.
The TUI passenger beam, flight number Tom173, left on December 20, 2023 at 5.50 pm, the local time for an overnight flight to Manchester.
Crew was informed of strong wind in England, but believed that they would disappear around 6 am, by plane as a result of land at 7.35 am.
Nevertheless, she chose to load an extra 984 kg of fuel as a precaution, similar to about 15 minutes of flying.
They first contacted Manchester Air Traffic Control at 7.18 am where they were told to circling above the airport, behind seven planes that were already waiting. At that time, the jet still had 5,500 kg of fuel.
The controller told the pilot that it was not possible to offer a landing time because the delay was unknown. The pilot circled their airport several times before she wanted to distract.
The wind speed was around 32 mph, with gusts of wind up to 47 mph.
At 7.28 hours called East Midlands Radar and advised that they might have to distract there, but three minutes later they were told: “We can't accept your size aircraft.”
Storm Pia caused a major disruption of the aircraft on December 21, 2023, a plane suggested taking off Leeds Bradford Airport
At 7,41 hours – six minutes after their planned landing time – the distraction from the plane to Birmingham airport was accepted, but it only had about 4,100 kg of fuel. This is the equivalent of about an hour.
At the first contact with Radar, the pilot said: “We will have minimal fuel.”
At 8.05 am the plane was cleaned up to land and began to descend, but the landing had to leave 240ft above the ground because of wind speeds, which with 43 MPH wind gusts.
During the climb to 4,000 ft, at 8.08 am, the crew contacted the radar of Birmingham with the text 'Tom173 Mayday Mayday Mayday, Tom173 Mayday Fuel'.
Air traffic controllers send the Jet on a route 25 miles south of the airport before placing them behind a second plane – more than doubling the distance to 53 miles, which means they cost a total of 1,450 kg of fuel.
The added 28 miles reduced the fuel reserve of the jet by another 400 kg.
The plane eventually hit Birmingham with 1,250 kg of fuel at 8.26 hours, equal to about 20 minutes of flight time.
The flight would last eight hours and 45 minutes, but lasted nine hours and 36 minutes.
The AAIB report in the incident showed that the air traffic controller in Birmingham should have had the flight earlier in advance a priorotizer.
The research concluded that the controller was confronted with a 'complex and high workload scenario', which resulted in the possibility of giving priority to Tom173 while a WIZZ was missed.
This resulted in Tom173 that flying an extensive track, although it had explained a fuel case, the report explained.
The AAIB report concluded: 'Although the regulations are necessary for unforeseen events, operators try to minimize fuel transport required for the flight, due to the fuel incineration sentence by bearing surplus fuel.
'Nevertheless, the crew identified a threat of strong wind and the potential for delays on arrival at Manchester airport.
'Incorrectly believe that the winds would disappear from 0600 hours, the commander asked some extra fuel, equal to about 15 minutes of fuel. Given the aircraft weights, the crew had the opportunity to load considerably more fuel.
'The resulting remaining fuel reduction resulted in the available options being reduced to achieve a safe landing if the aircraft had encountered Windhear in the second approach.
'The serious incident was the result of strong wind that generated difficult circumstances at the time of the flight to the UK.
“Safety campaign has been undertaken to clarify the process for determining and communicating the airport capacity for diversions and for the prioritization of aircraft that have explained an emergency.”
MailOnline has approached TUI for a comment.
