Flight History
On Saturday, 10 February 2018, a Boeing 737-8AS aircraft, registration EI-EKI, operated by Ryanair, was en route at flight level (FL) 370 in Canaries airspace. The crew requested to descend to FL130, and air traffic control cleared the descent. At 16:38:04, the controller instructed the aircraft to stop the descent at FL360 due to a potential conflict with another aircraft.
Pilot Actions and Aircraft Response
According to flight recorder data, at 16:38:07, the pilot selected the ALT HOLD mode on the mode control panel to maintain altitude. At that time, the aircraft was passing through FL364 with a high rate of descent. One second later, while crossing FL363, the pilot disengaged the autopilot. In his statement, the pilot indicated he believed the aircraft had passed the cleared flight level of FL360 and, seeing that the recovery maneuver was taking too long, he decided to manually return to the instructed flight level.
Passenger Injury
During this manual maneuver, a passenger fell, causing significant injuries to one leg. The report stated it was not possible to determine exactly when during the maneuver the passenger was injured, and therefore what the vertical acceleration was at the time. The flight recorder data showed large swings in the control column position, which resulted in large increases in the pitch angle. The aircraft was carrying 6 crew and 184 passengers. One passenger sustained a serious injury, and one passenger sustained a minor injury.
Investigation
The investigation included analysis of radar data, flight recorder data, crew statements, and air traffic controller statements. The flight crew consisted of two pilots; the aircraft commander held an Air Transport Pilot License (ATPL) and the co-pilot held a Commercial Pilot License (CPL). The air traffic controllers in the relevant sector provided statements regarding the traffic conflict and clearance instructions.