Wizzair Ukraine A320 at Kiev on Mar 14th 2012, tail strike on takeoff

Last Update: April 27, 2012 / 16:31:32 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 14, 2012

Flight number
WU-6102

Aircraft Registration
UR-WUA

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

A Wizzair Ukraine Airbus A320-200, registration UR-WUA performing flight WU-6102 from Memmingen (Germany) to Kiev Zhulhany (Ukraine), arrived in Kiev for what appeared to be a safe landing. A post flight inspection however revealed traces of a tail strike.

Ukraine's Ministry of Transport reported in their monthly bulletin that the investigation determined the tail strike had happened in Memmingen, when during acceleration for takeoff, Vr at 144 KIAS, at a speed of about 104 KIAS the captain had pulled the aircraft up. The first officer had just issued the call "100 knots" when without acknowledging the call the commander pulled the control column back causing the nose gear to separate from the runway at 104 KIAS resulting in a tail strike. The commander said later that while accelerating through about 120 knots he saw rabbits on the runway and instinctively attempted the climb the aircraft above the obstacles in order to avoid a collision. Instead they felt a slight bump. They subsequently checked for a possible tail strike, in the absence of tail strike or other abnormal indications the crew continued the flight to Kiev.

The investigation determined the cause of the serious incident was the untimely and improper control input to rotate the aircraft at a speed less than the calculated Vr and consequently the increase of the pitch angle until the tail contacted the runway.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 14, 2012

Flight number
WU-6102

Aircraft Registration
UR-WUA

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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