Just over a year ago, the Czech airline made an extremely unusual flight look. After an engine failure, the pilots continued the flight through "half of Europe" before landing at the home base in Prague. The state accident investigators are now making serious allegations against the captain.

In principle, commercial aircraft must land at the nearest possible airport if one or more engines fail. However, that is exactly what was not done on the aforementioned Smartwings flight in August 2019. You flew for around two hours with just one engine and landed at the destination airport, Prague.

The report by the Czech investigative authority UZPLN strongly criticizes the responsible captain, because he did not report the incident to air traffic control and, contrary to the regulations, continued the flight to Prague. Flight QS2115, which took off from Samos on August 22, 2019 with the destination Prague, was affected. According to the accident investigators, the left engine of the Boeing 737-800 failed about 180 kilometers from Athens.

The aircraft then sank to a lower altitude. Now the two pilots tried to restart the engine. This failed twice. Instead of informing air traffic control about the engine failure and explaining the air emergency, the journey was continued to Prague. No report was made to the ATC on the way there.

The two pilots radioed “Pan Pan” in Czech airspace in order to give themselves priority when landing in Prague. The machine had already been in the air for almost 2,5 hours with only one working engine. According to the accident investigators, there is also another circumstance: Due to the low altitude, fuel consumption rose sharply. When landing in Prague, the tanks were only 23 kilograms over the reserve. The authority assumes that the fuel would not have been sufficient to fly to another airport in the event of a closure from Prague.

What caused the captain in charge to act in this way puzzles the accident investigators. They could not find a comprehensible explanation for his decisions. The pilot is considered to be extremely experienced and also works as an instructor. The UZPLN now recommends that the Czech Aviation Authority order an immediate and in-depth psychological examination to determine suitability in flight service.