Flight drops 500ft after ice nearly stalls engine

8 March 2018, 06:32

A pilot had to take emergency action after a plane nearly stalled mid-air due to ice rapidly forming on its wing.

The Sumburgh-bound flight took off from Edinburgh Airport with 33 passengers on board.

During the climb, the Saab-Scania went through some cloud and hit light turbulence.

This then intensified and ice began to quickly form on the upper wing of the plane, causing a performance loss.

The stick shaker, which warns the pilots of an imminent stall, activated three times before the co-pilot brought the flight into a descent of 500ft in order to pick up speed.

After this, the plane regained its normal position and carried on its journey without any further issue.

The incident - from just after 2pm on June 5, 2017 - has been reported in the latest Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) bulletin.

In its paper, the AAIB said: "Safety action is being taken by the European Aviation Safety Agency, the operator and the manufacturer to implement an improvement that would address concerns about repeated activation of the stick shaker in the latter stages of an approach."

There were no injuries as a result of the incident.