Flight that will bring 222 passengers from São Tomé to Lisbon departing mid-afternoon – News
The same official source confirmed that there was a “technical problem” with the plane that this Saturday diverted having made the connection between São Tomé and Lisbon and that it “was immediately detected”, having a crew, following normal and security procedures, makes the decision to return and land again in São Tomé.
The return journey of the 222 passengers will be made by another aircraft that took off today from Lisbon towards São Tomé, which is expected to start in the middle of the afternoon of this Sunday.
The plane in which the technical problem was detected will remain in place, indicated the same official source.
A plane descending on Saturday morning from São Tomé bound for Lisbon was forced to return to the airport of origin, after “a strange noise in engine 2”, informed the National Civil Aviation Institute (INAC) of São Tomé and Príncipe.
The STP Airways flight is operated by the Portuguese company euroAtlantic.
In a clarification note channeled to the media, INAC indicated that after taking off from the Sao Tome international airport, the pilots identified “a strange noise in engine 2, which is why they took the route to the city of Libreville (Gabon), in order to make an assessment of the in-flight situation, which culminated in the decision to turn off the referred engine”.
“In evaluating what happened, as engine 2 was assembled and due to the difficult weather conditions in Libreville, the crew team decided to return and carry out the landing procedures in São Tomé in coordination with São Tomé and Libreville air control”, said the Institute of Civil Aviation of São Tomé and Príncipe.
Once an aircraft had just taken off, “the take-off weight exceeded the recommended landing weight”, the INAC Sao Tome explained, explaining that an aircraft diversion was placed “in conditions of recommended weight for safe landing”, so the process of burning fuel was triggered in order to reach the appropriate weight for the conditions in which the aircraft was found.
“The aircraft are designed to perform with just one engine, and pilots are trained in this type of procedure. On commercial flights, for safety reasons, redundancy must be guaranteed, if this redundancy is lost, landing at one of the airports marked as alternative within the provided security area is recommended”, explained the institute.
Asserting that “the information that there was a refusal by Libreville” for the plane to land is false, INAC reinforced that “in aviation, the safety of passengers and crew always comes first”.