Jet Airways B738 at Dhaka on Jan 22nd 2017, tail strike on landing

Last Update: September 20, 2017 / 15:03:36 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 22, 2017

Classification
Incident

Cause
Tail strike on landing

Airline
Jet Airways

Flight number
9W-276

Departure
Mumbai, India

Destination
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Aircraft Registration
VT-JTD

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

A Jet Airways Boeing 737-800, registration VT-JTD performing flight 9W-276 from Mumbai (India) to Dhaka (Bangladesh) with 160 passengers and 8 crew, landed on Dhaka's runway 14 at about 11:55L (05:55Z) but struck its tail onto the runway surface. The aircraft rolled out without further incident. There were no injuries, the damage to the aircraft is being assessed.

The airline confirmed the tailstrike stating there had been no injuries. Engineers have been dispatched to Dhaka to assess the aircraft damage.

The occurrence aircraft was still on the ground in Dhaka about 57 hours after landing.

On Sep 20th 2017 India's DGCA released their final report concluding the probable causes of the serious incident were:

Bottom of fuselage rubbed with runway surface as

- The First officer (PF) initiated flare but the thrust lever was not retarded to idle resulting in Power-On landing causing an aircraft skip of around 2 feet.

- The Captain (PM) who was supervising the landing had not cautioned the PF to retard thrust levers to idle.

- In view of the skip, the Captain took over controls (became PF) and initiated recovery procedure by increasing the thrust which should have been avoided for small skip.

- As the aircraft system sensed the aircraft on ground, the speed brakes got deployed.

- The Captain (PF) raised the nose further to smoothen the second touchdown, which resulted in insufficient fuselage clearance thereby causing the rubbing of fuselage with runway surface.

- The First officer (now PM) did not caution PF about the aircraft’s pitch attitude.

The DGCA reported the first officer (47, CPL, 3,329 hours total, 3,042 hours on type) was pilot flying for the "assisted landing", the captain (39, ATPL, 5,584 hours total, 1,444 hours on type) was pilot monitoring, both crew were authorized for the assisted landing. The aircraft was stabilized at 1000 feet AGL on ILS/DME approach to Dhaka's runway 14. As the aircraft got closer to the runway the first officer noticed they were getting high on the glideslope and took corrective action. After initial touchdown the aircraft bounced with a nose up attitude slightly higher than normal. The captain took control of the aircraft, increased the pitch and applied power, the takeoff configuration warning horn and warning lights activated, the aircraft touched down a second time, the thrust reversers were now deployed, the aircraft slowed down, vacated the runway and taxied to the stand. Maintenance engineers were informed about a possible hard landing.

During the post flight walk around damage was found to the tail skid assembly and belly of the aircraft. The aircraft was grounded and the return flight was cancelled.

Temporary repairs applying doublers onto the damage skin area enabled the aircraft to perform an unpressurized ferry flight to Mumbai, where the repairs were done.

The aircraft also sustained internal damage beyond the visible external damage.

The DGCA analysed that the first touchdown occurred at a maximum pitch of +4.57 degrees at a vertical acceleration of +1.55G and 59.38% N1. The aircraft bounced to a height of 2 feet at 4.04 degrees nose up, thrust increased to 64.88% N1, the speed brakes deployed.

A second touchdown occurred at +2.79G, speed brakes were still up, the pitch was 6.5 degrees nose up, thrust was at 48.88% N1. After the second touch down the pitch suddenly increased to 9.67 degrees, thrust was 40.38% N1.

The DGCA wrote in their analysis:

After the approach was stabilized, PF initiated flare at the recommended Flare height but the thrust lever was not retarded to idle as required by the FCTM for landing, so it was a power on landing. The PF was not cautioned by the captain who was supervising the landing. On initial touchdown with a pitch attitude of 4.57 Degrees, ‘g’ of 1.55 was experienced causing the aircraft to bounce for 02 feet in air. Speed Brakes got deployed as the system sensed aircraft on ground. At this moment, Captain took over controls and increased thrust commanding 64.88% N1 to recover from bounce, this could have been avoided for small skip(As per the FCTM). The pitch was also lowered to 2.11 degrees and DFDR data shows speed brake to be still up. The aircraft touched down on wheels for the second time with a vertical acceleration of 2.79 ‘g’ and pitch attitude of 6.5 Degrees, speed brakes still up. A pitch up trend @ 3.42 degrees/ second continued with a maximum pitch angle of 9.67 degrees.

Probably the main landing gear oleo strut which got compressed during the first touchdown might not have gone back to a fully extended position as it takes time, whereby reducing the distance between the bottom of fuselage of the aircraft and the ground at the time of second touchdown.

The aircraft attitude due to the combination of all the above at the time of second touchdown resulted in the fuselage bottom rubbing the ground as observed after the incident.

Metars:
VGHS 220700Z 32008KT 3500 HZ NSC 28/11 Q1016 NOSIG
VGHS 220630Z 34007KT 2800 HZ NSC 27/13 Q1017 BECMG S/VIS 3500M
VGHS 220600Z 33006KT 2500 HZ NSC 27/14 Q1018 BECMG S/VIS 3000M
VGHS 220530Z 27005KT 1800 HZ NSC 25/16 Q1019 BECMG S/VIS 2500M
VGHS 220500Z 00000KT 1800 HZ NSC 24/16 Q1019 BECMG S/VIS 2500M
VGHS 220430Z 00000KT 1600 HZ NSC 22/16 Q1019 BECMG S/VIS 2000M
VGHS 220400Z 00000KT 1500 HZ NSC 21/16 Q1019 BECMG S/VIS 2000M
VGHS 220330Z 00000KT 1500 BR NSC 20/16 Q1019 BECMG S/VIS 2000M
VGHS 220300Z 00000KT 1300 BR NSC 19/16 Q1019 BECMG S/VIS 1800M
VGHS 220230Z 00000KT 1300 BR NSC 17/14 Q1019 BECMG S/VIS 1500M
VGHS 220200Z 00000KT 0900 FG SCT008 16/15 Q1019 TEMPO S/VIS 1200M
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 22, 2017

Classification
Incident

Cause
Tail strike on landing

Airline
Jet Airways

Flight number
9W-276

Departure
Mumbai, India

Destination
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Aircraft Registration
VT-JTD

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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