Aer Lingus A320 at London on Jan 16th 2014, hard landing
Last Update: May 10, 2014 / 17:16:21 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jan 16, 2014
Classification
Incident
Cause
Hard landing
Airline
Aer Lingus
Flight number
VS-3048
Departure
Manchester, United Kingdom
Destination
London Heathrow, United Kingdom
Aircraft Registration
EI-EZV
Aircraft Type
Airbus A320
ICAO Type Designator
A320
Airport
London Heathrow Airport, London
Airport ICAO Code
EGLL
The French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin that the aircraft experienced a "heavy landing". The occurrence was rated a serious incident, the British AAIB is investigating.
The incident aircraft was able to depart London about 3.5 hours after landing and performed flight VS-3043 to Manchester.
On May 8th 2014 the AAIB released their bulletin reporting, that the first officer was pilot flying and the captain (34, ATPL, 7,292 hours total, 6,878 hours on type) pilot monitoring. About 5nm before touchdown autopilot and autothrust were disconnected and the aircraft configured for a landing with flaps at position 3. The AAIB stated that the captain reported the thrust was reduced at normal flare height however no noticeable flare, he called "Flare", but there was no reduction in rate of descent occurred resulting in a hard touch down at a vertical acceleration of +2.74G.
The AAIB reported that paramedics treated four of the six crew for minor back and neck pain.
The AAIB reported: "The commander thought that the light turbulence during the approach, combined with a more responsive aircraft than usual, might have led to the aircraft being over-controlled in pitch."
The AAIB reported that according to the flight data recorder in the last 28 seconds before touchdown there was a high rate of pitch inputs with increasing amplitude, that were made and reversed, so that the pitch attitude did not always change in response. In the last 2 seconds before touchdown the pitch angle increased from 1.5 to 6.5 degrees nose up. The AAIB analysed: "However, the final increase in pitch attitude came too late to arrest the rate of descent leading to the hard landing."
Metars:
EGLL 161720Z 17011KT 150V220 5000 SHRA SCT020TCU SCT027 09/06 Q0988 TEMPO NSW
EGLL 161650Z 17010KT 140V230 9999 VCSH SCT025 09/06 Q0988 TEMPO SHRA
EGLL 161620Z 18010KT 150V220 9999 SCT024 09/06 Q0988 TEMPO SHRA
EGLL 161550Z 18012KT 150V230 9999 FEW021 SCT048 09/06 Q0988 TEMPO SHRA
EGLL 161520Z 19014KT 9999 -SHRA FEW019TCU SCT030 09/06 Q0988 TEMPO SHRA
EGLL 161450Z 18014G25KT 9000 -SHRA FEW022 SCT026 09/06 Q0989 TEMPO SHRA
EGLL 161420Z 18013KT 9999 -SHRA FEW021 SCT030 10/06 Q0989 TEMPO SHRA
EGLL 161350Z 18014G24KT 9999 SCT025 10/06 Q0989 TEMPO SHRA
EGLL 161320Z 19013KT 9999 SCT022 10/06 Q0989 NOSIG
EGLL 161250Z 19014KT 160V220 9999 SCT022 10/06 Q0990 TEMPO SHRA
EGLL 161220Z 19014KT 9999 SCT017CB SCT042 10/07 Q0990 TEMPO SHRA
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jan 16, 2014
Classification
Incident
Cause
Hard landing
Airline
Aer Lingus
Flight number
VS-3048
Departure
Manchester, United Kingdom
Destination
London Heathrow, United Kingdom
Aircraft Registration
EI-EZV
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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