Swiss A320 at London on Dec 3rd 2013, tail strike
Last Update: September 11, 2014 / 13:21:30 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Dec 3, 2013
Classification
Accident
Airline
Swiss International Airlines
Flight number
LX-332
Departure
Zurich, Switzerland
Destination
London Heathrow, United Kingdom
Aircraft Registration
HB-IJB
Aircraft Type
Airbus A320
ICAO Type Designator
A320
Airport
London Heathrow Airport, London
Airport ICAO Code
EGLL
The return flight LX-333 was cancelled.
The French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin that the British AAIB have opened an investigation into the occurrence rated an accident.
On Sep 11th 2014 the British AAIB released their bulletin releasing following discussion:
The co-pilot had joined the operator with no previous commercial experience and was making acceptable progress towards the conclusion of the training programme. The use of experienced training captains provides a safety net to prevent or at least mitigate the consequences of errors. A relatively small error of skill, which the commander was unable to capture, resulted in a tail strike. The crew and airfield staff actions following the incident removed any residual risk to the aircraft and its occupants from undetected damage.
The first officer in the right hand seat (292 hours total experience, 138 hours on type) was pilot flying and was about to complete line training after having recently converted to the Airbus A320. An experienced type rate examiner (50, ATPL, 10,341 hours total, 6,749 hours on type) was occupying the left hand seat as pilot monitoring.
The aircraft was on approach with full flaps, the commander described the approach as stable. The first officer smoothly commenced the flare at the correct height, however, at 10 feet AGL he made an additional nose-up pitch input which resulted in an unusual high pitch attitude, airspeed "wash off" and an increased rate of descent, which the first officer attempted to arrest by more nose up input just as the main gear touched down. The ground spoilers deployed and the aircraft increased its pitch to +12.3 degrees nose up resulting in the tail strike. Just as the ground spoilers deployed the commander attempted to counter the nose up tendency with a large nose down input but did not press the "take over" button, the flight control software thus continued to summarize the left and right stick inputs. After the first officer eased the back pressure on the stick to 0 degrees the nose of the aircraft came down and the nose gear touched down in 3 seconds.
The aircraft taxied clear of the runway, stopped, the crew shut the right hand engine down to permit safe access by emergency crews to inspect the aircraft. Paint damage and scratches were found on the tail of the aircraft, the commander decided to not start the APU. The aircraft subsequently taxied to its assigned gate, where passengers disembarked, and was subsequently towed to a repair facility for minor repairs.
The AAIB reported subsequent "detailed survey of the rear fuselage damage was conducted by the operator. The lower fuselage skin, frames and butt splice between frames 67 and 72 were abraded by contact with the runway. At frame 70, deformation of the lower pressure bulkhead was noted 250 mm either side of the centreline and a 190 mm long crack was found on the lower ring frame assembly." In view of this substantial damage the AAIB rated the occurrence an accident.
The AAIB reported the airline took following safety actions: "The operator evaluated the pilot actions and provided additional simulator and supervised line flying for the co-pilot. Intervention and coaching strategies were reviewed after considering the commander’s performance, and “take home” messages were disseminated to other training pilots. Additionally, information on the incident was provided to all of the operator’s Airbus flight crew."
Metars:
EGLL 031350Z 24005KT 210V290 9999 BKN023 06/02 Q1029 NOSIG
EGLL 031320Z 27005KT 220V310 9999 BKN023 06/02 Q1029 NOSIG
EGLL 031250Z VRB03KT 9999 BKN023 06/02 Q1029 NOSIG
EGLL 031220Z 30004KT 270V350 9999 BKN023 06/02 Q1029 NOSIG
EGLL 031150Z VRB03KT 9999 BKN022 06/02 Q1030 NOSIG
EGLL 031120Z VRB03KT 9999 BKN022 06/02 Q1030 NOSIG
EGLL 031050Z VRB03KT 9999 BKN022 06/02 Q1030 NOSIG
EGLL 031020Z 35004KT 310V030 9999 BKN022 06/02 Q1030 NOSIG
EGLL 030950Z VRB03KT 9999 BKN022 06/02 Q1030 NOSIG
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Dec 3, 2013
Classification
Accident
Airline
Swiss International Airlines
Flight number
LX-332
Departure
Zurich, Switzerland
Destination
London Heathrow, United Kingdom
Aircraft Registration
HB-IJB
Aircraft Type
Airbus A320
ICAO Type Designator
A320
Airport
London Heathrow Airport, London
Airport ICAO Code
EGLL
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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