Peruvian B733 at Jauja on Mar 28th 2017, hard landing, runway excursion, all gear collapsed, aircraft caught fire

Last Update: October 12, 2021 / 11:35:04 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 28, 2017

Classification
Accident

Flight number
P9-112

Departure
Lima, Perú

Destination
Jauja, Perú

Aircraft Registration
OB-2036-P

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-300

ICAO Type Designator
B733

A Peruvian Airlines Boeing 737-300, registration OB-2036-P performing flight P9-112 from Lima to Jauja (Peru) with 142 passengers and 7 crew, landed on Jauja's runway 31 at about 16:40L (21:40Z) but veered off the runway, suffered the collapse of all gear and burst into flames coming to a stop after skidding on fire for some distance. The aircraft was evacuated. There were no injuries, the aircraft received substantial damage beyond repair.

Passengers reported there were two strong impacts upon arrival.

On Mar 30th 2017 a passenger video (below) was released showing a normal touchdown and about 1 second of normal rollout followed by severe vibrations, then the collapse of the right main gear as initial events, the recording stops before the aircraft comes to a stop. (Editorial note: A similiar sequence of events was reported by South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority in their final report of Accident: Comair B734 at Johannesburg on Oct 26th 2015, left main gear collapse on landing).

Local media report 29 occupants were taken to hospitals with injuries.

Peru's Ministry of Transport and Communication reported the aircraft OB-2036-P had had a hard landing at Jauja Airport. All passengers and crew were evacuated and are well. A fire has been extinguished in the meantime. The Accident Investigation Commission is going to investigate the accident.

The local public prosecutor reported there were no injuries and no casualties.

According to local sources there was work in progress on the left hand side of the runway, the right hand runway half, width 22.5 meters, was available only, however the width was declared 30 meters. No related NOTAMs were published, however.

Jauja Airport's Elevation is 11,034 feet/3363 meters MSL, the airport offers runway 13/31 of 2810 meters/9220 feet length.

Peru's CIAA released their final report in Spanish only (Editorial note: to serve the purpose of global prevention of the repeat of causes leading to an occurrence an additional timely release of all occurrence reports in the only world spanning aviation language English would be necessary, a Spanish only release does not achieve this purpose as set by ICAO annex 13 and just forces many aviators to waste much more time and effort each in trying to understand the circumstances leading to the occurrence. Aviators operating internationally are required to read/speak English besides their local language, investigators need to be able to read/write/speak English to communicate with their counterparts all around the globe).

The report concludes the probably causes of the accident were:

Failure of the mechanical components of the shimmy damper kinematic systems (see analysis below for definition) of both main landing gear struts which, due to being outside tolerances, were not able to correctly dampen the vibrations and lateral oscillations of the wheels causing "shimmy" events. The sequence of shimmy events in both main gear struts led to the fracture and collapse of both main gear struts.

Contributing factors were:

- incorrect and possibly missing measurement data of mechanical components of the shimmy damper kinematic system in the Aircraft Maintenance Manuals (AMM) as present at the operator, which woud have permitted timely detection and replacement of parts out of tolerance.

- Boeing's service letter 737-SL-32-057-E "Main Landing Gear (MLG) Lower Torsion Link Fractures" does not require mandatory action but only recommends maintenance practises to prevent fractures of the mechanical components of the shimmy damper system.

- Boeing's service letter 737-SL-32-057-E "Main Landing Gear (MLG) Lower Torsion Link Fractures" is difficult to interprete possibly misleading which AMM tasks need to be performed in what scope.

Boeing's service letter 737-SL-32-057-E "Main Landing Gear (MLG) Lower Torsion Link Fractures" had been released on December 22nd 2015. The service letter reasoned:

Boeing occasionally receives reports of broken torsion links and damaged shimmy damper pistons on 737-100 through -500 airplanes. These events have been attributed to excessive wear or looseness in the main landing gear torsion link apex joint. This looseness can make the shimmy damper ineffective and may allow a shimmy event to occur. Recently, there has been an increase in shimmy events that can be attributed to 737 -100 through -500 operators who may be unaware of the importance of the recommended MLG damper maintenance practices.

This service letter is provided to advise operators of recommended maintenance practices to prevent main landing gear torsion link and shimmy damper piston fractures.

The CIAA summarized the sequence of events that following an uneventful flight from Lima the aircraft was on approach to Jauja's runway 31. According to NOTAMs only the right hand side of the runway was available while the left side was closed for work in progress. Tower reminded the crew of only the right hand side of the runway being available. The first officer (49, ATPL, 7,604 hours total, 5,272 hours on type) was pilot flying, the captain (60, ATPL, 13,504 hours total, 11,403 hours on type, also holding the instructor's license on 737 aircraft) was pilot monitoring. The first officer was undergoing training to land at high altitude airports.

The nose gear touched down about 2 seconds after both main gear struts had touched down. The crew activated the thrust reversers when they felt strong vibrations and oscillations causing the aircraft to pitch up and down bouncing several times followed by a loud noise and the right hand main gear collapsing. The crew was unable to maintain directional control while the aircraft skidded on left main gear and right engine veering to the right, leaving the runway surface to the right. The right engine was ripped off the wing when the aircraft crossed a drainage ditch causing a fuel spillage. The fuel subsequently ignited and reached the aircraft, that had already stopped. The crew heard an explosion, saw fire at the right hand side of the aircraft, activated all fire handles and ordered an evacuation through the left hand doors. There were no injuries, the aircraft however was destroyed by the fire.

The CIAA analysed that the approach was fully stabilized and within all limits, touchdown occurred at +1.33G at 152 KIAS at a rather low rate of descent. Boeing had recommended to touch down at a normal rate of descent with speedbrakes armed so that speedbrakes would deploy as quickly as possible warning crews that if the speed brakes do not deploy in excessively soft landings shimmy events could occur.

Although the left hand side of Jauja's runway was closed at the time, it should still have provided a width of 75 meters for the remaining right hand side. However, as a draining ditch was running all along the runway 50 meters to the right of the runway center line, the closure of the left hand side of the runway meant, the ditch was only 27 meters to the right of the center of the remaining runway width.

The CIAA stated they decided to refer to the following mechanical components as the shimmy damper kinematic system:

- the apex joint including apex washer, spherical shaped bushing, apex nut and associated mechanical components
- the upper and lower torsion links which join in the apex joint
- the 02 bushings of the rear terminals of the lower torsion link and the 02 bushings of the pistons where the lower torsion link connects to
- the 02 bushings of the rear terminals of the upper torsion link and the 02 bushings where the upper torsion link connects to

Studying the Boeing service letter SL 737-SL-32-057-E the CIAA determined that the service letter recommended to carry out 7 different maintenance tasks out of the AMM. Maintenance performed 6 of these tasks but left one out due to not knowing whether the task referenced the mechanical parts present at the aircraft. The operator had included two more maintenance tasks that were not part of the recommendations of the service letter.

The aircraft's performance did not contribute to the causal chain of events.

Mass and Balance including takeoff and landing masses were within limits and did not contribute to the causal chain of events.

Due to the size and depth of the drainage ditch fire services of Jauja Airport were not able to cross the ditch and thus made it impossible to deliver water and fire extinguishing agents to the correct areas of the aircraft. While this did not impair the survival possibilities in this accident, it clearly is a deficiency in the mitigation capabilities of the airport and must be corrected permitting fire services access to all areas.

Only METAR available (no further weather data available):
SPJJ 281124Z 00000KT 9999 SCT030 OVC050 09/08 Q1029=

Right hand side Passenger video of landing (Video: vivayoforeverandever ):


Work in progress on left runway half Mar 29th 2017:


The wreckage the following day:


The remains of aircraft:


The aircraft seen from the apron (Photo: Julio César Talledo):


The wreckage trail leading to final position:


Map (Graphics: AVH/Google Earth):
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 28, 2017

Classification
Accident

Flight number
P9-112

Departure
Lima, Perú

Destination
Jauja, Perú

Aircraft Registration
OB-2036-P

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-300

ICAO Type Designator
B733

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