Wizzair Ukraine A320 at Kiev on Mar 14th 2012, tail strike on takeoff
Last Update: April 27, 2012 / 16:31:32 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Mar 14, 2012
Airline
Wizz Air Ukraine
Flight number
WU-6102
Departure
Memmingen, Germany
Destination
Kiev Zhulhany, Ukraine
Aircraft Registration
UR-WUA
Aircraft Type
Airbus A320
ICAO Type Designator
A320
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
Airline
Wizz Air Ukraine
Flight number
WU-6102
Departure
Memmingen, Germany
Destination
Kiev Zhulhany, Ukraine
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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