EAST Lancashire holiday giant Airtours has conducted an urgent investigation after a 220-passenger jet scraped the ground and was damaged in an incident during which the pilot's glasses fell off as the crew tried to land the plane.

And the company, which has offices in Helmshore and Accrington, has downgraded the 53-year-old pilot after he was criticised for deviating from normal procedures during the incident.

The damning report, published by the UK's Air Accident Investigation Branch and compiled by authorities in the Dominican Republic where the Airtours International Boeing 757 made three unsuccessful attempts to land in January 1998, said the pilot allowed himself to be deceived into pursuing the 'risky' challenge of trying to land the plane in difficult conditions.

It also criticises the 34-year-old co-pilot for failing to challenge the pilot's flawed decisions. A spokesman for the company said: "Airtours International has read the report and considers it to be a fair and accurate reflection of the incident which involved a deviation from standard Airtours International procedures.

"As a consequence of the incident, Airtours International urgently reviewed all of its procedures and is confident that they are correct." The plane finally landed after diverting from Puerto Plata airport to nearby Santo Domingo airport on the Caribbean island and although the aircraft's tail section was badly damaged no one was hurt.

The report said that the fact the pilot's glasses fell off contributed to the crew not getting the plane into the correct position or approach at the right speed. It went on: "Numerous deviations from the operator's standard operating procedures by the flight crew precluded the establishment of a stabilised approach.

"It seems likely he (the pilot) relished the challenge of completing this flight as planned in difficult conditions and allowed himself to be deceived into pursuing that challenge in a gradually increasingly risky manner.

"The first officer (co-pilot) did not contribute sufficiently towards the overall management of the flight and failed to challenge any of the commander's (pilot's) flawed decisions as his crew resource management training experience should have equipped him to do."

The spokesman for Airtours International went on: "The captain was downgraded to first officer and neither of the pilots flew again until the investigation was concluded and both completed full re-training."

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