Avianca A320 at Ibague on Oct 8th 2021, severe hard touchdown at +4.9G

Last Update: April 7, 2022 / 18:09:13 GMT/Zulu time

Bookmark this article

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Oct 8, 2021

Classification
Accident

Airline
Avianca

Departure
Ibague, Colombia

Destination
Ibague, Colombia

Aircraft Registration
N742AV

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

An Avianca Airbus A320-200, registration N742AV performing a verification flight from Ibague to Ibague (Colombia) with 11 crew, had departed Ibague's runway 32, climbed to 12000 feet and returned to runway 32 about one hour later, however, touched down severly hard. The aircraft went around and subsequently diverted to Bogota.

Colombia's GRIAA reported the aircraft experienced a vertical acceleration of +4.9G at touchdown on Ibague's runway 32 during a verification flight to validate a new approach procedure. The occurrence is being investigated.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Bogota until December 24th 2021.

Colombia's GRIAA released their preliminary report in Spanish stating, that the aircraft had flown several test and verification flights from Bogota to Ibague and had safely landed in Ibague after doing low approaches to Ibague's runway 32 and runway 14 (with go arounds at 50 feet AGL). Later the day another series of verification flights was planned again with low approaches to runway 14 and 32 and subsequent landing in Ibague again.

After departure from Ibague with the captain being pilot flying the aircraft made an uneventful low RNP approach to runway 14 and went around with the autopilot being engaged. Following the go around the controls were handed to the first officer, who was to perform a RNP approach to runway 32. The aircraft was configured with flaps full, gear down, and performed the RNP approach with the autopilot and autothrottle engaged, Vref was 130 KIAS. While ATC reported a cross wind, the aircraft's navigation display showed a tail wind component of 13 knots during the approach. The aircraft was fully stabilized descending through 1000 feet AGL, descending through 500 feet AGL the speed over ground was 159 knots, the vertical speed varied between -700 and -900 fpm. The aircraft reached 50 feet AGL, the first officer activated TOGA, however, the aircraft did not react as expected and continued to descend making a hard touch down 7 seconds after crossing 50 feet AGL. Autothrottle and Autopilot disconnected, the crew performed the go around manually and climbed the aircraft out. Multiple fault indications occurred including losing the FACs, the aircraft reverted to "DIRECT LAW". After the crew retractd the landing gear, the FBW switched to "ALTERNATE LAW". The aircraft entered a hold, the crew performed the ECAM actions including resets of the FACs, which returned the aircraft to "NORMAL LAW". The crew assessed the situation and decided to divert to Bogota where the aircraft landed without further incident. A post flight inspection revealed no obvious damage except for pilot seat #4 which had received fractures.

Although the visual inspection did not reveal obvious damage an assessment revealed overload on both main gear struts requiring the replacement of several components like the shock absorbers of both main gear struts, the replacement of both wheel assemblies. Additional damage found by Airbus is being examined whether the damage was related to the hard landing.

The flight data recorder showed a peak vertical acceleration of +4.9G at touchdown on runway 32. Both CVR and FDR were downloaded successfully, in addition the GRIAA has two videos available, one camera was focussed on crew, center pedestal and flight instruments, the other on the main PFD and main ND.

The GRIAA quoted the relevant METARs:
METAR SKIB 081700Z 17004KT 9999 SCT030 SCT200 29/22 Q1017 RMK A3005=
METAR SKIB 081800Z 11008KT 9999 SCT030 30/21 Q1016RMK A3001=