Tarom AT72 at Iasi on Aug 11th 2012, runway excursion

Romania's Centrul pentru Investigatii si Analiza pentru Siguranta Aviatiei Civile (CIAS) released their final report in Romanian concluding the probable causes of the serious incident were:

Error in piloting technique amidst erroneous interpretation of influence by weather conditions from the moment of touchdown leading to runway excursion.

Contributing was the lack of center line lighting.

The CIAS reported that the flight went without incident until touchdown on Iasi's runway 15. Immediately after touchdown in night conditions on the wet runway with puddles of water the aircraft veered to the left and exited the paved surface of the runway. The crew managed to steer the aircraft back onto the paved surface of the runway after about 250 meters on the grass. There were no injuries, the aircraft received a cut to the outboard left main wheel tyre, which needed to be replaced, one of the runway edge lights was damaged.

The report does not mention whether the captain (ATPL, 2900 hours total, 2300 hours on type) or the first officer (CPL, 800 hours total, 500 hours on type) was pilot flying, the report mentions however that the captain radioed air traffic control requesting the descent towards Iasi.

The CIAS analysed that the aircraft performed a stable approach with all parameters within criteria for a stabilised landing and touched down smoothly left of the center line of runway 15 with a ground track of 150 degrees. The water puddles on the runway may have affected the grip of the tyres differently resulting in the aircraft veering to the left onto a track of 110 degrees, the outboard tyre of the left main gear contacted a runway edge light before the aircraft went off the paved surface with all gear. When the left main gear went onto grass, its friction increased causing a further turn to the left.

The CIAS analysed that the crew reacted calm and correctly after the runway excursion returning the aircraft onto the runway and notifying air traffic control and ground services about the runway excursion.

Ground tracks seen from point of re-entering the runway towards threshold runway 15 (Photo: CIAS):