Philippine Airlines Flight 137

Philippine Airlines Flight 137 was a scheduled passenger flight from Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila to Bacolod City Domestic Airport in Bacolod. The Airbus A320 overran the runway on landing which resulted in the deaths of three people on the ground whereas none out of the 124 passengers and 6 crew were killed.

Accident

Flight 137 took off from Manila at 6:40 p.m. and landed at Bacolod City Domestic Airport at 7:37 p.m. after receiving permission from air traffic controllers to land on Runway 04.

This approach was made with the autothrottle in speed mode. The throttle lever of the first engine on the left side of the fuselage was located in the position of ascending thrust. When the aircraft landed, the throttle of the second engine was placed in the thrust reverse position, but the throttle of the first engine was not returned to the idle position and remained in the ascending position. The co-pilot said that the spoiler and thrust reverser did not work and did not slow down. The spoiler did not start because one engine was in the thrust reverse position and the other was in the ascending thrust position. The second engine was set to reverse thrust, so the autothrottle was released. Since the throttle lever of the first engine was in the ascending thrust position, the thrust began to increase when the autothrottle was released. Due to the asymmetrical thrust, the aircraft began to deviate to the right, so the pilot tried to keep the aircraft on the runway using rudders, but at this speed, the rudder and nose wheel steering had no effect, and the aircraft went through the fence around the perimeter of the airport. When operated from the rudder pedals, the nose wheel steering angle is limited to 6 degrees, and hand-steering is disabled at speeds above 70 knots. The fire that broke out after the accident was extinguished by the timely response of the ATO Accident Fire Rescue Team with the cooperation of the Bacolod City Fire Brigade. All passengers and crew were unharmed, but three people in the area were killed.