Lion B739 at Surabaya on Feb 1st 2014, hard landing

Last Update: March 24, 2014 / 12:14:49 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 1, 2014

Classification
Accident

Cause
Hard landing

Airline
Lion Air

Flight number
JT-361

Departure
Balikpapan, Indonesia

Destination
Surabaya, Indonesia

Aircraft Registration
PK-LFH

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-900

ICAO Type Designator
B739

Airport
Juanda International Airport, Surabaya

Airport ICAO Code
WARR

A Lion Air Boeing 737-900, registration PK-LFH performing flight JT-361 from Balikpapan to Surabaya (Indonesia) with 215 passengers and 7 crew, was on approach to Surabaya's runway 28 at 10:15L (03:15Z), when the aircraft performed a hard touch down resulting in a number of tyres bursting. The aircraft rolled out without further incident. Two passengers received serious, three passengers minor injuries.

On Monday (Feb 3rd) early morning (local Indonesia time) the airline confirmed the aircraft suffered a hard touch down upon landing at Surabaya at about 10:20L. Three passengers received minor injuries and were taken to see a doctor. The hard landing resulted in a number of tyres bursting, there was no damage to the landing gear however. The aircraft is still in Surabaya undergoing a thorough inspection. The black boxes are currently being read out to determine the acceleration, the aircraft experienced on landing, and to establish what happened.

About 5 hours later another incident happened at Surabaya, see Incident: Garuda B738 at Surabaya on Feb 1st 2014, burst tyre on landing.

Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) reported early Monday morning (local time) they have opened investigations into both occurrences at Surabaya of Feb 1st. Investigators have been dispatched on site and are currently in the middle of collecting evidence.

An aviation source posting from Morocco had claimed on Pprune, that the Lionair Boeing 737-900 registration PK-LFH had landed on Surabaya's runway a few minutes prior to the Garuda and suffered a hard landing experiencing a vertical acceleration of 4G and a tail strike leaving debris on the runway, then taxied to the apron without notifying ATC. Debris remaining on the runway then caused the damage of the Garuda.

The photos claimed to show PK-LFH only show details of damage of a tail strike as well as damage to tyres and wheels, but do not permit to identify airframe, time or airport.

On Mar 24th 2014 Indonesia's KNKT released their preliminary report stating, that the aircraft was on approach to Surabaya's runway 28. At 1000 feet AGL the crew disconnected the autopilot, tower reported the winds from 270 degrees at 16 knots. The aircraft touched down on runway 28 but experienced four bounces with the last fifth touch down resulting in 3.86G vertical acceleration. Two passengers received serious, three minor injuries. The passengers disembarked normally, the injured were taken to a hospital.

Examination of the aircraft showed the nose wheel hub was broken, one main tyre was flat and the tail skid assembly was damaged, there were wrinkles on left lower side of the fuselage ahead of the wing and right middle to upper side of fuselage around the wing. All parts were otherwise still intact.

The captain (33, ATPL, 3,700 hours total, 1,300 hours on type) was assisted by a first officer (24 [editorial note: the report actually states age 24 hours!], 1000 hours total, 750 hours on type). Both pilots had not received a bounced landing recovery training.

Metars:
WARR 010800Z 31017KT 9000 FEW018TCU FEW020 31/24 Q1004=
WARR 010730Z 31016KT 9000 FEW020TCU FEW020 31/24 Q1004 NOSIG=
WARR 010130Z 27012KT 6000 -RA SCT015 26/22 Q1008=
WARR 312330Z 27008KT 7000 SCT019 26/22 Q1007 NOSIG=
WARR 312300Z 312300Z 26009KT 5000 HZ FEW020 24/21 Q1008=
WARR 312230Z 27014KT 6000 FEW020 24/21 Q1008=