WDL B462 at London on Aug 16th 2015, hard landing

Last Update: May 12, 2016 / 16:16:55 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of WDL Aviation D-AMGL, BRITISH AEROSPACE BAe-146-200 — WDL Aviation D-AMGL, BRITISH AEROSPACE BAe-146-200 (Photo credit: Aeropixels Photography / Flickr / License: CC by)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Aug 16, 2015

Classification
Accident

Cause
Hard landing

Airline
WDL Aviation

Flight number
BA-8735

Departure
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Destination
London City, United Kingdom

Aircraft Registration
D-AMGL

Aircraft Type
BRITISH AEROSPACE BAe-146-200

ICAO Type Designator
B462

Airport
London City Airport, London

Airport ICAO Code
EGLC

A WDL Aviation British Aerospace BAe-146-200 on behalf of British Airways, registration D-AMGL performing flight BA-8735 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to London City,EN (UK), landed on London City Airport's runway 09 at 18:36L (17:36Z) but touched down hard. The aircraft rolled out without further incident. There were no injuries, the aircraft sustained substantial damage.

On Dec 4th 2015 Germany's BFU reported in their August Bulletin that the BAe-146-200 aircraft touched down hard at London City Airport at 18:36L and sustained substantial damage, there were no injuries. The BFU is supporting the investigating authority according to ICAO Annex 13 representing the state of aircraft registration.

The occurrence aircraft ferried to Cologne (Germany) on Aug 21st 2015 and resumed service on Aug 26th.

On May 12th 2016 the AAIB released their bulletin reporting the commander (ATPL, 4900 hours total, 4,500 hours on type) reported after landing that the arrival had been "strongly positive with a slight bounce". There were no anomalies noticed during roll out and taxi.

Ground crew noticed loss of fluid from the right main gear and informed the crew, who subsequently noticed the aircraft was also developing a slight tilt. The commander removed the aircraft from service pending maintenance examination.

The AAIB reported a surveillance video confirmed there was a bounce on landing, the aircraft touched down in the appropriate spot.

A subsequent inspection found an oil stain at the right main gear, a piece of locking wire was on the ground, the right main gear door was pierced and one of four bolts were missing from the shock absorber.

The aircraft was fitted with magnetic tape type flight data and cockpit voice recorders, the FDR did contain data pertinent to the flight, however, showed corruption at and around the time of touch down. As such it was not possible to determine the vertical speed at touchdown and the resulting G-load data. However, in the 5 secnds prior to touchdown the aircraft was descending at 10 feet per second (600fpm), just within the design criteria for the aircraft at maximum landing weight.

The quick access recorder card inserted in the QAR was found with bent pins, however, no fault message had been generated, the light came on only after the card was removed from the slot. The card was downloaded and was found blank.

The part of the missing bolt, that had remained in the shock absorber, was examined in laboratory. The AAIB wrote: "The conclusion of the metallurgical examination was that the bolt had fractured due to the initiation of multiple fatigue cracks from a number of locations. These locations were where the bolt interfaced with the outer cylinder, and no defects were observed at these initiation sites. No evidence of cracking was found in the other three bolts."

The AAIB wrote with respect to maintenance: "The serial number on the heads of the three remaining bolts confirmed that these three bolts were fitted during the overhaul in 1998. In April 2015 the shock-absorber had completed over 23,100 landings. Given that the bolts were replaced in 1998 after 2,013 landings, then at the time of the incident the bolts had completed at least 21,000 landings, which exceeds their 18,100 landing fatigue-life limit. The operator did not record, and did not have a record for, the number of landings for these shock-absorber bolts. They noted that when the aircraft was bought from another operator they did not inherit any records for the bolts."

The AAIB discussed: "A subjective comparison of the rate of oil loss between that observed at London City Airport and that measured during the investigation of the shock-absorber suggested that the bolt became detached within a few hours of landing at London City. The location and dimensions of the hole in the landing gear door were consistent with the bolt becoming detached and then being pressed against the inside of the landing gear door on retraction. It is therefore probable that the bolt became detached either during, or shortly before, the takeoff from Frankfurt."

Metars:
EGLC 162020Z 21002KT CAVOK 17/10 Q1018=
EGLC 161950Z VRB03KT CAVOK 17/11 Q1018=
EGLC 161920Z VRB03KT CAVOK 17/10 Q1017=
EGLC 161850Z VRB03KT CAVOK 18/10 Q1017=
EGLC 161820Z 18005KT CAVOK 18/10 Q1017=
EGLC 161750Z 17004KT 120V210 CAVOK 18/10 Q1017=
EGLC 161720Z 18007KT 140V210 CAVOK 18/10 Q1017=
EGLC 161650Z 15006KT 120V210 CAVOK 19/11 Q1017=
EGLC 161620Z 12007KT 9999 BKN048 19/09 Q1017=
EGLC 161550Z 10008KT CAVOK 19/10 Q1017=
EGLC 161520Z 08007KT 9999 FEW040 19/10 Q1017=
EGLC 161450Z 07007KT 9999 BKN048 19/10 Q1017=
EGLC 161420Z 08007KT CAVOK 19/10 Q1017=