Air Burkina MD-83 fuel shortage and low approach at Paris-Orly

Overview and flight details On 12 January 2011, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 registered XT-ABF and operated by Air Burkina was conducting a public-transport ferry flight from Paris-Orly to Olbia in Sardinia, Italy. The aircraft was being flown with its landing gear extended because of a hydraulic failure during the previous flight. The crew consisted of the captain as pilot flying, the first officer as pilot not flying, and one passenger. ## Fuel planning and return to Orly During flight preparation, the crew did not have the documentation needed to calculate the fuel required for a flight with the landing gear extended. They increased the fuel quantity planned in the technical flight plan by about 5% and loaded a total of 7,040 kg of fuel. The aircraft departed at 11:03 UTC. At the first navigation tracking point, LAMUT, the crew found that fuel consumption caused by the drag of the extended landing gear was higher than expected. At the second tracking point, LAKOB, this trend was confirmed, and the crew estimated that it could not reach its destination. After about 23 minutes of flight, it decided to return to land at Paris-Orly. ## Approach and landing The Paris-Orly approach controller provided radar guidance for an ILS approach to runway 26. At 11:53:14 UTC, the controller asked the crew to turn left to a heading of 290 degrees to intercept the localizer. The aircraft was at 4,000 ft QNH. The crew turned left and established the approach. During the ILS approach, the crew went around because of a malfunction in the captain's VOR/ILS set and a descent that had created a risk of collision with terrain. The crew then made a VOR/DME approach. The cloud ceiling was 300 ft above ground, or 600 ft QNH, while the weather minima for the VOR/DME approach were 900 ft. The crew believed that the small amount of remaining fuel required it to land after that approach. At the minimum descent altitude, the crew continued the descent until the ground was in sight. On exiting the cloud layer at about 300 ft above ground, it saw the runway to the left. It made large-amplitude lateral manoeuvres and landed in the middle of the runway. The aircraft stopped a few metres from the end of the runway. ## Investigation findings The incident resulted in particular from inadequate flight preparation and degraded crew resource management, which did not allow the crew to correctly identify the state of the available onboard navigation equipment and the various trajectory deviations. There were no fatalities or injuries, and the report states that there were no consequences or damages.