The automatic nose down pitch commands stopped after the pilot pressed the autopilot disconnect button, and then proceeded to land the aircraft manually.ĭuring the second reported incident, the operator simply experienced a stall warning and stick pusher failure. Prior to the downward pitch commands occurring, the pilot’s displays generated angle of attack failure and stick pusher failure messages. In the first incident, the aircraft was under manual pilot control before the stall warning system suddenly activated several downward pitch commands. The ESP assists the pilots, but does not take control and can be overridden with control inputs,” the representative said.įAA’s AD also provides brief descriptions of each incident. The Cirrus ESP system is unrelated to the 737 MAX Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. ![]() “This problem involves different AOA sensors from those used on the Boeing 737 MAX. However, the FAA said that the grounding of the Cirrus SF50 fleet has no relation to the 737 MAX investigation. The grounding comes amid the recent grounding of the global Boeing 737 MAX fleet, which also resulted from two accidents resulting from erroneous information and operation of that aircraft’s AOA sensors and maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS). “Cirrus has developed an FAA-approved corrective action and revised emergency procedures in the airplane flight manual,” the FAA said in a statement. No accidents have occurred as a result of the three incidents, the representative said. Specifically, the two set screws that secure the potentiometer shaft to the AOA vane shaft can feature “improper torqueing and no application of thread locker to secure the two set screws.”Īccording to an emailed statement provided by a representative for the FAA, the directive impacts a total of 99 U.S.-registered Cirrus SF50s. When the SWPS engages inappropriately, it can result in activation of the stick shaker and/or the stick pusher as well as generate a stall warning crew alert message, the directive states.Īerosonic, the company that manufactures the AOA sensors for the SF50, believes that the probable root cause of the three different incidents resulted from AOA sensor malfunction due to a “quality escape” during assembly. FAA’s AD provided a description of how the SWPS is configured within the SF50, noting that it may engage even when a pilot is experiencing sufficient airspeed and proper angle of attack under normal flight conditions.
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