Introduction
On 6 March 2022, a Boeing 737-8AS aircraft, registration EI-EVR, operated by Ryanair, was involved in an incident during an approach to Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport (LEMG). The flight, a scheduled international passenger service from Charleroi-Brussels South Airport (Belgium), carried 6 crew members and 167 passengers, all unharmed. The incident occurred approximately 19 nautical miles northwest of the airport at approximately 08:59 UTC.
Incident Details
The aircraft conducted an initial approach to runway 12 but was instructed by air traffic control (ATC) to go around due to a breach of minimum separation with a preceding aircraft on final approach. After completing the missed approach, the captain requested priority to land, citing low fuel but without using standard phraseology; consequently, the arrival sequence remained unchanged.
ATC then cleared the aircraft to proceed to NEPUR, descend to 6,000 feet, and fly the ILS Z approach for runway 12. The aircraft subsequently descended below the cleared altitude, violating the minimum vector altitudes of the sectors it was flying over. ATC did not alert the pilots to this deviation. The aircraft's Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) activated, warning the flight crew of proximity to terrain. The crew initiated a climb and later intercepted the localizer for runway 12.
The aircraft continued its flight with no damage of any type.
Aftermath
The investigation concluded that the incident occurred because the flight crew did not correctly perform the Málaga approach they had been cleared to follow. A contributing factor was that ATC did not actively monitor and did not detect that the aircraft had descended below the cleared altitude.
No safety recommendations are included in this report excerpt.
Probable cause: The flight crew did not correctly perform the Málaga (LEMG) approach that they had been cleared to follow.
Contributing factor: ATC did not monitor actively and did not detect that the aircraft descended below the cleared altitude.