UPS A306 at Albuquerque on Mar 22nd 2011, hard landing and tail strike during go-around
Last Update: February 24, 2017 / 18:39:36 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Mar 22, 2011
Classification
Accident
Cause
Hard landing
Airline
UPS
Flight number
5X-797
Departure
El Paso, United States
Destination
Albuquerque, United States
Aircraft Registration
N173UP
Aircraft Type
Airbus A300
ICAO Type Designator
A306
Airport ICAO Code
KABQ
The FAA reported that post flight inspection revealed substantial damage to the airframe and rated the occurrence an accident.
On Dec 28th 2011 the NTSB reported that the aircraft suffered a tail strike during the go-around and received substantial damage.
Reader Erik reported he saw workers inspecting the bottom of the tail section of the aircraft using a mechanical lift (see photo). He could not see any damage of the aircraft (e.g. creases).
Runway 26 (length 13,793 feet/4205 meters) has no instrument approach procedure, there are mountains rising up to 10,000 feet MSL (4500 feet above aerodrome level) 7nm east of the runway threshold, runway 03 (length 10,000 feet/3050 meters) has an ILS.
On Feb 24th 2017 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable cause of the accident is:
The captain's failure to control the airplane pitch-up induced by ground spoiler deployment during the go-around.
The NTSB reported:
On final approach, the local controller cleared the flight to land and reported the winds were 310 degrees at 16 knots. The flight crew stated that at 1000 feet AGL the landing checklist was complete, the airplane was fully configured for landing and the approach speed was set to 132 knots (Vref + 5).
Recorder data indicated that during the final approach, the autothrottle was disconnected about 800 feet above the ground and the airspeed decreased to as low as 129 knots but did not go below Vref (127 knots). The first officer (FO) stated that he called out the low airspeed and adjusted the target airspeed from 132 to 134 knots. The captain increased power during the approach but the airspeed remained slightly below Vapp until landing. Pitch attitude on final approach was stable at about 5 to 6 degrees nose up. The pitch attitude at touchdown was about 7 degrees and the airplane touched down first on the right main landing gear (MLG) and then on the left MLG. The flight crew stated that they felt that the airplane bounced and both called for a go around simultaneously. About one second after the initial touchdown, the ground spoilers began to deploy, followed by an increase in pitch in the next two seconds from 4.2 degrees to 12.7 degrees. Thrust levers advanced to near maximum thrust about one second after the left MLG touched down and as the ground spoilers were in transit. Pitch attitude continued to increase to more than 14 degrees while the airplane was still on the ground. Neither flight crewmember was aware of a tail strike until the captain discovered damage to the airplane during the post flight inspection..
The tail strike resulted in aft fuselage skin cracks and numerous sheared rivets, internal structural damage to the frames, a cracked support bracket, buckled floor beam, buckled main cargo deck floor panels, and buckled stringers.
Metars:
KABQ 230356Z 31008KT 10SM CLR 08/M12 A3001 RMK AO2 SLP139 T00831117
KABQ 230256Z 32013KT 10SM FEW140 09/M12 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP127 T00891122 53024
KABQ 230156Z 32016KT 10SM FEW100 10/M13 A2994 RMK AO2 PK WND 33026/0100 SLP114 T01001128
KABQ 230056Z 32015G23KT 10SM FEW100 SCT180 12/M13 A2991 RMK AO2 PK WND 28026/0003 SLP101 T01171128
KABQ 222356Z 28017G26KT 10SM FEW100 SCT180 13/M14 A2990 RMK AO2 PK WND 29028/2329 SLP090 T01331139 10139 20089 55007
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Mar 22, 2011
Classification
Accident
Cause
Hard landing
Airline
UPS
Flight number
5X-797
Departure
El Paso, United States
Destination
Albuquerque, United States
Aircraft Registration
N173UP
Aircraft Type
Airbus A300
ICAO Type Designator
A306
Airport ICAO Code
KABQ
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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