Frontier A321 at Orlando on Aug 8th 2019, windshear causes hard landing and tail strike

Last Update: May 4, 2022 / 17:05:06 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Frontier Airlines N717FR, Airbus A321 — Frontier Airlines N717FR, Airbus A321 (Photo credit: TDelCoro / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Aug 8, 2019

Classification
Accident

Airline
Frontier Airlines

Flight number
F9-1187

Departure
Portland, United States

Destination
Orlando, United States

Aircraft Registration
N717FR

Aircraft Type
Airbus A321

ICAO Type Designator
A321

Airport
Orlando International Airport, Orlando

Airport ICAO Code
KMCO

A Frontier Airlines Airbus A321-200, registration N717FR performing flight F9-1187 from Portland,ME to Orlando,FL (USA) with 225 passengers and 7 crew, was on final approach to Orlando's runway 18L when tower advised about a windshear alert 15 knots loss on 1nm final and cleared the flight to land. The crew continued, encountered windshear and touched down hard at 13:29L (17:29Z), performed a bounce recovery and went around. The aircraft positioned for another approach now for runway 35R about 25 minutes after the balked landing and landed without further incident.

The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground in Orlando until Dec 13th 2019, made a test flight on Dec 13th 2020 and returned to service on Dec 14th 2019.

On Aug 13th 2019 The Aviation Herald received information the aircraft touched down at almost +4G and suffered a tail strike as result of windshear on short final close to ground. The damage is being assessed, it does not appears impossible the damage needs to be assessed beyond repair.

On Feb 6th 2020 the NTSB reported the aircraft suffered a tail strike during landing as result of wind shear, went around and landed on parallel runway. The occurrence was rated an accident, the NTSB is investigating.

On May 4th 2022 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable causes were:

Encountering gusty conditions at a low altitude during landing and the crew’s decision to do a go-around at a low altitude with an excessive rotation rate.

The NTSB analysed:

The final approach was considered stabilized. At about 40 feet above ground level, a significant tailwind gust of about 25 knots was experienced, creating a loss of airspeed. The loss of airspeed resulted in a loss of lift at a low height and led to a hard touchdown. At about 10 feet above the runway (and before the hard touchdown) the flight crew set “TOGA” thrust for go-around and applied full back stick pressure resulting in a pitch increase to +9.2 degrees. The engines required time to spool up and the airplane lost altitude before it started to climb. The increase in pitch and delay in thrust caused the tailstrike, resulting in substantial damage to the airplane. The airplane was fitted with a tailstrike prevention option which appears on the primary flight director (PFD) when below 400 feet but deactivates when thrust levers are pushed to “TOGA”. Standard operating procedures for go-arounds near the ground inform flight crews to avoid an excessive rotation rate to prevent tailstrikes.

Metars:
KMCO 081953Z 25009KT 10SM FEW040 FEW090 SCT250 BKN300 33/22 A2996 RMK AO2 LTG DSNT NE SLP144 T03280222=
KMCO 081853Z 28008KT 10SM FEW035CB SCT090 BKN250 32/23 A2998 RMK AO2 LTG DSNT NE AND E RAE06 TSB19E38 SLP150 CB DSNT E MOV E TCU DSNT N-NE SE VCSH E P0001 T03220233=
KMCO 081838Z 28011KT 10SM FEW035CB SCT090 BKN250 32/24 A2999 RMK AO2 LTG DSNT E RAE06 TSB19E38 CB DSNT E MOV E TCU DSNT N-NE SE VCSH E P0001 T03170239=
KMCO 081819Z 28005KT 10SM TS FEW035CB FEW090 BKN250 31/25 A2999 RMK AO2 LTG DSNT E RAE06 TSB19 OCNL LTGCG SE TS SE MOV E TCU NE-E VCSH SE P0001 T03110250=
KMCO 081753Z VRB04G31KT 6SM R35L/3500VP6000FT +RA FEW019 BKN037TCU BKN250 28/22 A3000 RMK AO2 PK WND 27031/1744 LTG DSNT E RAE00B44 SLP157 VIS NE 2 TCU ALQDS P0017 60017 T02780217 10328 20244 55005=
KMCO 081653Z 29007KT 10SM -RA SCT033TCU BKN250 31/24 A3000 RMK AO2 RAB48 SLP156 TCU ALQDS P0000 T03110239=
KMCO 081553Z 25009KT 10SM SCT029 32/24 A3001 RMK AO2 SLP159 T03170244=
KMCO 081453Z 24008KT 10SM SCT022 30/25 A3001 RMK AO2 SLP162 T03000250 50005=