Indigo A320 at Raipur on Dec 14th 2016, hard landing at +3.164G

Last Update: February 12, 2020 / 19:18:06 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Dec 14, 2016

Classification
Report

Cause
Hard landing

Airline
Indigo Airlines

Flight number
6E-201

Departure
Delhi, India

Destination
Raipur, India

Aircraft Registration
VT-IGK

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

An Indigo Airbus A320-200, registration VT-IGK performing flight 6E-201 from Delhi to Raipur (India) with 167 passengers and 7 crew, performed an ILS approach to Raipur's runway 24, touched down at +2.512G, bounced and touched down a second time at +3.164G. The aircraft rolled out without further incident and taxied to the apron. There were no injuries and no damage to the aircraft.

On Feb 12th 2020 India's DGCA released their final report concluding the probable causes of the incident were:

The incident occurred due to inadequate flare by the co-pilot during landing.

Delayed decision by the PIC and not initiating the go-around timely are the contributory factors to the incident.

The DGCA reported the first officer (35, CPL, 351 hours total, 61 hours on type) was pilot flying under supervision (Supervised Line Flying), the captain (40, ATPL, 9801 hours total, 6827 hours on type in command) was pilot monitoring. The captain also authorised to act as Line Training Captain.

Following a correct approach briefing the first officer performed a fully stabilized ILS approach to runway 24 until 50 feet AGL, but then did not provide sufficient inputs to flare the aircraft, the captain intervened but could not prevent the aircraft to touch down at +2.512G, the aircraft bounced and touched down a second time at +3.164G above the structural limit of +2.6G. The aircraft did not sustain any damage.

The DGCA wrote with respect to the flight data recorder:

PIC was continuously monitoring the flight parameters and aircraft configuration. However, no input by the PIC is noticed and atlast at 8ft above the runway, he tried to give the pitch input. Pitch increased from 2.1o at 8ft to 4.9o at the time of touch-down within a period of 0.875 seconds. The vertical acceleration at the time of first touch-down was recorded 2.512g. Aircraft bounced and again touched-down the runway with pitch angle 6.3o, at ROD 668ft/min with vertical acceleration of 3.164g. However, no response from the FO recorded during and after the touch down.

The DGCA analysed:

First officer was continuously responding instructions of PIC. After passing 50ft, weak flare was noticed by PIC and advised the FO to correct the same. First Officer also admitted that after 50ft, flare was not adequate. PIC advised her to flare the aircraft and at the last he gave the pitch input. At the same time the aircraft touched the ground, bounced and made the hard landing. During her another submission, she submitted that as per earlier briefing she was totally focussed on maintaining the center line and did not give the adequate flare input in time. When PIC gave the flare input, aircraft landed hard on main gear.
In view of above, it is observed that First Officer was not focussed on the tasks she had to perform during the approach & landing. Also, PIC noticed weak flare, but appropriate action by the PIC was not taken timely. He had to initiate Go-around, if he already noticed weak flare leading to unstabilised approach.

Metars:
VERP 140630Z 06008KT 6000 NSC 27/08 Q1017 NOSIG=
VERP 140730Z 07008KT 6000 NSC 28/10 Q1015 NOSIG=
VERP 140800Z 07005KT 6000 NSC 28/10 Q1015 NOSIG=
VERP 140830Z 05005KT 6000 NSC 28/11 Q1015 NOSIG=
VERP 140900Z 04005KT 6000 SCT100 28/11 Q1014 NOSIG=
VERP 140930Z 05002KT 6000 FEW100 29/11 Q1014 NOSIG=
VERP 141000Z 05002KT 6000 FEW100 29/11 Q1014 NOSIG=
VERP 141030Z 06005KT 6000 NSC 28/11 Q1014 NOSIG=