Investigation number
199302856
Occurrence date
State
Queensland
Report release date
Report status
Final
Investigation type
Occurrence Investigation
Investigation status
Completed
Aviation occurrence type
Jet blast/prop wash
Occurrence category
Accident

A Bandeirante aircraft, VH-XFL, was parked in the western run-up bay and facing into an 8 to 12kt wind. A maintenance engineer was at the controls conducting an engine run. A Tiger Moth aircraft,VH-BXF,landed on runway 33 and commenced taxiing via taxiways YANKEE and ALPHA. This entailed taxiing behind the Bandeirante. As BXF taxied behind XFL, it was blown over onto its nose and left wing tip. The engineer did not respond, over a period of one minute and forty seconds, to radio calls from the Surface Movement Controller (SMC) telling him to shut down the engines. The engines were eventually shut down following signals from ground personnel. The pilot of the Tiger Moth aircraft later indicated that he was not aware that the area occupied by the Bandeirante aircraft was a designated run-up area and he assumed that the aircraft was waiting for a takeoff clearance at a holding point. He also indicated that he had taxiied behind other turbo-prop aircraft which had their engines running, without problem. When the engineer in charge of the Bandeirante asked for taxi clearance to the run-up bay, there was no mention of an engine run. The SMC was thus unaware that an engine run was the purpose of entering the area. The engineer reported that power greater than 50 percent was not used and that he regarded this as low power. However, the propeller wash was strong enough to drastically affect the Tiger Moth some 50m behind. The severity of the propeller wash was exacerbated by the local wind conditions.

Aircraft Details
Manufacturer
de Havilland Aircraft Pty Ltd
Model
DH-82A
Registration
VH-BXF
Sector
Piston
Departure point
Cairns QLD
Destination
Cairns QLD
Damage
Substantial