A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A321-251N, registration CS-TJM, was forced to divert to Porto after the crew heard an unusual noise during the climb phase of a flight from Lisbon to London Heathrow.
The incident, while ultimately without structural consequence, offers a rare and clear cut example of how a small piece of ground equipment can disrupt a modern jet airliner.
The Flight That Diverted to Porto…
Flight TP2878 departed Lisbon bound for London Heathrow and had climbed to flight level 360 when the flight crew reported unusual noise coming from the aircraft.
At the time the aircraft was around 80 nautical miles east southeast of Porto. Rather than continue toward the United Kingdom, the crew opted for the more cautious course of action and turned back toward Porto.
Around the same time, ground staff in Lisbon noticed that a headset used during pushback and taxi communications was missing, a detail that would later prove significant.
The aircraft landed safely on Porto’s runway 35 roughly 50 minutes after its original departure from Lisbon.
The Investigation
Portugal’s aviation safety authority, the GPIAAF, carried out a maintenance inspection once the aircraft was on the ground in Porto.
Investigators found remnants of the missing headset, including loose cabling, entangled around the right main landing gear door.
The equipment had apparently been left near the aircraft during ground operations in Lisbon and become caught in the gear bay as the doors cycled during retraction after takeoff, producing the noise heard by the crew in the cockpit.
Encouragingly, inspectors found no damage to the aircraft’s structure or its systems.
With the wreckage cleared and the aircraft confirmed airworthy, CS TJM was released to continue its journey to London.
The Aircraft Involved And Outcome
CS-TJM remained on the ground in Porto for about one hour before departing again for Heathrow, eventually landing in London around 80 minutes behind schedule.
The aircraft itself, manufacturer serial number 8145, is an Airbus A321-251N powered by twin CFM LEAP-1A32 engines.
Built at Airbus’s Hamburg site and first flown in April 2018, the jet spent time with Primera Air Scandinavia and later GECAS before joining the TAP Air Portugal fleet in March 2019, where it remains in active service today.
Although the outcome was benign, the incident is a useful reminder of how ground handling lapses, even something as small as a misplaced headset, can escalate into an inflight event requiring a diversion, a maintenance inspection, and a knock on delay for passengers.
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