Moldova A321 at Moscow on May 16th 2021, tail strike on landing
Last Update: May 18, 2021 / 16:25:42 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
May 16, 2021
Classification
Accident
Cause
Tail strike on landing
Airline
Air Moldova
Flight number
9U-171
Departure
Chisinau, Moldova
Destination
Moscow Domodedovo, Russia
Aircraft Registration
ER-AXR
Aircraft Type
Airbus A321
ICAO Type Designator
A321
A post flight inspection revealed damage to the tail of the aircraft, which was unable to depart for the return flight. Return flight 9U-172 was cancelled.
The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Moscow about 44 hours after landing.
Airport sources report the aircraft was not able to land on first approach due to strong winds, performed another approach, touched down hard and struck its tail onto the runway surface.
Rosaviatsia reported the tail of the aircraft contacted a runway threshold lamp of runway 14R on the second approach at 12:40Z. A subsequent inspection revealed damage to the tail section of the aircraft in form of a dent, scoring and abrasions.
As reader Jay pointed out, the aircraft, then tail number F-GUAA, had suffered another tail strike with a previous operator, see Report: Aigle Azur A321 at Algiers on Jan 8th 2008, tailstrike during landing.
As Jacdec pointed out, the aircraft, then tail number G-JSJX flying for My Travel Airways, had suffered yet another tail strike at East Midlands on Mar 2nd 2002, see the AAIB final report. The AAIB rated the occurrence an accident and concluded the causes of the accident in 2002 were:
The root cause of this accident was the co-pilots desire (and perhaps need) to practice an instrument approach technique shortly before his ability to perform it satisfactorily was assessed in the simulator. He had not intended to fly the ILS approach without the benefit of the flight director, but once he had allowed the aircraft to fly through the glidepath at relatively close range to touchdown (about 5 nm), if he wished to retain the use of the flight director, he had little choice other than to discard that approach and attempt another. Thus, the earlier oversight of omitting to arm the approach mode of the flight director subsequently robbed him of its value in reducing workload and he never succeeded in regaining a properly stabilised approach. The direct cause of the accident was the decision to continue the approach when it was not properly stabilised. The co-pilots call regarding low air speed at 70 feet agl was the flight crews final chance to extricate themselves from the deteriorating situation by performing a go around.
METAR (only 1200Z data were available until the reader comment by Menil on May 18th 2021 10:22Z):
UUDD 161300Z 25003MPS 190V290 9999 SCT040CB 23/09 Q1013 RETS R88/CLRD60 TEMPO -TSRA
UUDD 161230Z 30004G12MPS 230V020 9999 -SHRA BKN026CB 23/10 Q1013 R88/60D TEMPO -TSRA
UUDD 161200Z 20005MPS 9999 -SHRA BKN038CB 23/09 Q1013 R88/CLRD60 TEMPO -TSRA
The local weather station reported at
12:00Z: Temperature 23 degrees C, Dew Point 9 degrees C, Winds from SSW at 10 knots (no gusts), 992 hPa QFE.
12:30Z: Temperature 23 degrees C, Dew Point 10 degrees C, Winds from WNW at 8 knots gusting 23 knots, 992 hPa QFE
13:00Z: Temperature 23 degrees C, Dew 9 degrees C, Winds from WSW at 6 knots (no gusts), 992 hPa QFE
Incident Facts
Date of incident
May 16, 2021
Classification
Accident
Cause
Tail strike on landing
Airline
Air Moldova
Flight number
9U-171
Departure
Chisinau, Moldova
Destination
Moscow Domodedovo, Russia
Aircraft Registration
ER-AXR
Aircraft Type
Airbus A321
ICAO Type Designator
A321
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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