Ryanair B738 at London on Jul 29th 2014, tail strike on landing

Last Update: December 11, 2014 / 15:55:35 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Ryanair EI-EFB, Boeing 737-800 — Ryanair EI-EFB, Boeing 737-800 (Photo credit: Cha già José / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jul 29, 2014

Classification
Accident

Cause
Tail strike on landing

Airline
Ryanair

Flight number
FR-2369

Departure
Ostrava, Czech Republic

Destination
London Stansted, United Kingdom

Aircraft Registration
EI-EFB

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

Airport
London Stansted Airport, London

Airport ICAO Code
EGSS

A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-EFB performing flight FR-2369 from Ostrava (Czech Republic) to London Stansted,EN (UK) with 171 passengers and 6 crew, landed on Stansted's runway 04 at 22:42L (21:42Z) but struck its tail onto the runway. The aircraft rolled out without further incident. There were no injuries, the passengers disembarked normally, the aircraft sustained substantial damage.

Ryanair's Chief Pilot confirmed Ryanair suffered their first landing tailstrike ever in over 500,000 flights/year. The occurrence is under investigation by the United Kingdom's Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) and Ryanair's safety department. Further details will be made available, the chief pilot promised, as soon as they become available.

The aircraft was able to resume service on Aug 17th 2014 after substantial damage to the belly of the aft fuselage and tail section had been repaired.

On Dec 11th 2014 the British AAIB released their bulletin stating the aircraft had been performing an ILS approach to runway 04 of Stansted Airport with the first officer (no details provided) being pilot flying. Descending through 500 feet AGL the aircraft was stabilized and the first officer disconnected the autopilot and autothrottle and continued for a manual landing. Descending through the last 200 feet AGL the wind varied slightly from the reported wind (from 330 degrees at 7 knots), the first officer applied left aileron into the wind resulting in the aircraft's left main gear touching down first at 144.5 KCAS, a nose up attitude of 5.1 degrees, +1.3G vertical acceleration and N1 engine indications of 59% (left) and 56% (right). The captain (26, ATPL, 4,905 hours total, 4,754 hours on type) later commented that the aircraft bounced a few feet back into the air and about 3-4 seconds later touched down a second time much firmer than the first time at a high nose up attitude. The flight data recorder indicated that the speedbrakes were armed before first touchdown but switched to "not armed" upon touchdown. The thrust levers were retarded and reached idle about 2 seconds after first touchdown, at that point the speed brakes became "ARMED" and the flight spoilers deployed. The aircraft reached a maximum of 5 feet AGL during the bounce, following spoiler extension the aircraft began to pitch up and reached 8.9 degrees nose up upon second touch down at 4.4 seconds past first touchdown, the second touchdown produced a vertical acceleration of +2.09G, both engines were spooling down to 31% N1. Following second touch down the autobrakes engaged and the ground spoilers deployed, the nose gear touched down 8 seconds after second touch down. The aircraft rolled out without further incident.

Cabin crew later reported the second touchdown had been hard prompting the commander to perform a walk around, during which he found visible damage to the lower rear fuselage.

The AAIB described the damage: "The visible damage consisted of a large scrape along the skin of the tail section of the aircraft; numerous stringers and frames beneath the surface were also damaged, requiring a substantial repair before the aircraft was returned to service."

The AAIB summarized comment by the captain: "The commander considered that the aircraft bounced because the first touchdown occurred with higher than idle thrust. When the thrust lever was selected to idle during the bounce, the speedbrakes deployed automatically; this caused a loss of lift, the nose of the aircraft to pitch up, and the subsequent tailstrike on touchdown."

The AAIB quoted a section of the flight crew operating manual:

Bounced landings can occur because higher than idle power is maintained through initial touchdown, disabling the automatic speedbrake even when the speedbrakes are armed. During the resultant bounce, if the thrust levers are then retarded to idle, automatic speedbrake deployment can occur resulting in a loss of lift and nose up pitching moment which can result in a tail strike or hard landing on subsequent touchdown.

Metars:
EGSS 292320Z 33007KT CAVOK 17/14 Q1016
EGSS 292250Z 33008KT CAVOK 17/14 Q1016
EGSS 292220Z 33008KT CAVOK 18/14 Q1016
EGSS 292150Z 33007KT CAVOK 18/14 Q1015
EGSS 292120Z 33006KT CAVOK 18/14 Q1015
EGSS 292050Z 33007KT CAVOK 19/14 Q1015
EGSS 292020Z 33008KT CAVOK 20/14 Q1015
EGSS 291950Z 33010KT CAVOK 21/14 Q1015
EGSS 291920Z 32007KT 290V350 CAVOK 21/13 Q1014
EGSS 291850Z 32008KT CAVOK 22/12 Q1014
EGSS 291820Z 32006KT CAVOK 23/11 Q1014