A software bug caused a Tui flight to take off heavier than expected as female passengers classified as ‘Miss’ were classified as children, an investigation has found.
The departure from Birmingham Airport to Mallorca with 187 passengers on board is described by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) as a ‘serious incident’.
An update to the airline’s booking system while the planes were grounded due to the coronavirus pandemic resulted in 38 passengers on the flight being assigned a child’s standard ‘weight’ of 35 kg, as opposed to the adult figure of 69 kg.
As a result, the loading bay – which was manufactured for the captain, had to calculate what input was needed for take – off – making the Boeing 737 more than 1,200 kg lighter than it actually was.
Investigators described the error as a simple error in an IT system. It was programmed in an unnamed foreign land where the title “Miss.” Used for a child and ‘Mrs’ for an adult woman.
Despite the issue, the thrust used for the departure from Birmingham on 21 July 2020 was only ‘slightly less’ than it should have been, and the ‘safe operation of the aircraft was not endangered’, the AAIB said.
The same mistake caused two other Tui flights to take off from the UK later that day with inaccurate cargo sheets.
The system was adjusted when the problem was first identified 11 days earlier, but it did not correct the weight entries for the July 21 flight.
The operator then conducted manual investigations to ensure that the relevant documentation referred to adults as me.
Tui said in a statement: ‘The health and safety of our customers and crew is always our most important concern. After this isolated incident, we fixed a bug that was identified in our IT system. As stated in the report, the safe operation of the flight was not endangered. ”