Irish investigators believe a sudden pitch-up input during a bounced landing resulted in an Aer Lingus Airbus A321LR’s sustaining a tail-strike on touchdown at Washington Dulles two years ago.

The aircraft, arriving from Dublin on 30 August 2023, had been descending to runway 01R in gusting wind conditions and deviated from the glideslope at 300ft, becoming slightly high.

Ireland’s Air Accident Investigation Unit says the first officer, who was flying manually, responded with a nose-down input at 120ft which coincided with a loss of headwind.

This caused the aircraft to descend more rapidly, reaching 976ft/min. After a caution from the captain to watch the pitch attitude, the first officer initiated the flare with a “rapid” aft sidestick movement that reduced the descent rate to 150ft/min.

As the jet touched down – with a nose-up pitch of 7.5° and a 1.6g impact – only one of the three spoiler elevator computers validated both main landing-gear as being on the ground.

This meant there was no automatic compensation command to the elevators to counter the characteristic pitch-up caused when the spoilers deployed on the wings.

EI-LRD-c-Anna Zvereva Creative Commons SA2.0

The aircraft bounced to a height of 3ft, says the inquiry, and the first officer made an “intuitive” pitch-up input on the sidestick – either due to being startled by the bounce, or in a bid to smooth the second touchdown.

This nose-up input increased the pitch to 10.1°, exceeding the tail-strike threshold of 9.7°, and the aircraft’s aft fuselage contacted the runway when it touched down for the second time.

The captain simultaneously took control of the jet and initiated a go-around, following which the A321LR landed on the same runway without further incident.

Airbus’s crew training manual states that, if the aircraft experiences a high sink-rate near the ground, a pilot might attempt to avoid a hard landing with high nose-up pitch commands – which could result in control difficulties after touchdown. The inquiry says the Dulles occurrence illustrated this scenario.

Although the jet (EI-LRD) sustained aft fuselage damage, and two cabin crew reported minor injuries, none of the 151 occupants was seriously injured.

Aer Lingus took steps to enhance simulator training for go-arounds near the ground, as well as tail-strike awareness, says the inquiry, adding that Airbus intends to improve system logic for spoiler compensation around mid-2028.





Source link

Posted in
Uncategorized
Related Posts
Limousine Comments are Closed

Plan the perfect NYC Memorial Day weekend

Pack only what you need and avoid overpacking to streamline the check-in and security screening…

News Comments are Closed

LA’s worst traffic areas and how to avoid them

Consider using alternative routes, such as Sepulveda Boulevard, which runs parallel to the 405 in…

Industry eyes greener future despite hydrogen adoption delay | Analysis

Any organisation funding the research and technology (R&T) activities necessary for aviation’s future faces a…

How will the UK wield its buying power as defence spending rises? | Analysis

The UK government’s commitment ­earlier this year to significantly boost defence spending over the coming…

Ground-vibration tests completed on fully-substituted MC-21

United Aircraft has completed ground-vibration testing of the import-substituted Yakovlev MC-21 prototype, moving the twinjet…

United Aircraft team details widebody twinjet family proposal similar to 787

Russian intellectual property authorities have registered a patent from aerospace firm United Aircraft detailing a…

LOT shows off cabin interior plans for A220s and 737 Max fleets

Polish flag-carrier LOT has shown off the interior configuration for its new Airbus A220s, which…

Malta’s Bridges Air Cargo reveals first Embraer E-Freighter | News

Malta’s Bridges Air Cargo has taken delivery of its first Embraer E-Freighter, and the world’s…

Initial A350F fuselage sections arrive at Toulouse final assembly line

Airbus has received the initial fuselage sections for its A350 freighter, MSN700, at its final…

Altimeter pressure setting becomes focus of fatal Angara An-24 terrain collision

Russian investigators have indicated that an altimeter pressure-reference error contributed to the fatal Angara Airlines…

Portugal’s first Super Tucano light attack aircraft depart Brazil for NATO standard upgrades at OGMA

Portugal’s first Embraer A-29N Super Tucano light attack aircraft have departed from Brazil. The aircraft…

Ambitious Air Mobility Group plots Lilium eVTOL revival with €250 million backing but financial and technical challenges loom

Administrators overseeing the insolvency of collapsed electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) developer Lilium say…

Post a comment

Your email address will not be published.