Status: | Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Date: | Tuesday 13 December 2011 |
Time: | 08:45 |
Type: | Airbus A319-111 |
Operator: | Air France |
Registration: | F-GRHS |
MSN: | 1444 |
First flight: | 2001-02-13 (10 years 10 months) |
Engines: | 2 CFMI CFM56-5B5/P |
Crew: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 5 |
Passengers: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 114 |
Total: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 119 |
Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
Aircraft fate: | Repaired |
Location: | Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) ( France)
|
Phase: | Landing (LDG) |
Nature: | International Scheduled Passenger |
Departure airport: | Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport (HAM/EDDH), Germany |
Destination airport: | Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG/LFPG), France |
Flightnumber: | AF2511 |
Narrative:The crew of the Airbus A319 took off from Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel, Germany, at 07:26 hours local time for flight 2511 to Paris-CDG, France. The pilot-in-command was the Pilot Flying (PF).
At 08:09 the crew began the descent from FL380 and prepared for an ILS approach for runway 27R in daytime instrument conditions
At 08:40, at a distance of approximately 14 NM from threshold of runway 27R, the aircraft was established on the glide slope. During the approach the flight encountered turbulent winds, causing the aircraft toll with an amplitude reaching 5° to the left and 4° to the right. The attitude oscillates changed between approximately 0.5° and 2.5° nose-up.
At 3,500 feet the Pilot Flying disengaged the autothrottle and autopilot and continued the approach manually. The controller cleared the flight to land and reported a wind 220° at 25 kt with gusts to 38 kt. The aircraft remained on the localizer while the roll oscillating between 6° left and 6.5° right. The attitude of the aircraft varied between 1° nose down and 6,5° nose-up. The aircraft oscillated with a maximum deviation of about 80 ft below and about 110 ft above the glideslope. The angle of drift of the aircraft varied between 10° and 15° with the nose of the aircraft to the left of the axis of the localizer.
At 08:44 the crew deployed the undercarriage. Passing 1000 ft radio altitude the aircraft was stabilized. Subsequently the indicated airspeed fluctuated and remained higher than the Vapp target speed.
As the aircraft descended through 200 feet, the approach became unstabilized. The captain noticed three red and one white PAPI light, indicating he was slightly below the glide slope. The left wing dropped.
At 08:46 the aircraft began to flare at a height of 15 feet above the runway and a speed of 155 kts (Vapp target = 138 kts).
The aircraft then touched down with the main landing gear hitting the runway with a vertical load factor of 2.66 g. The longitudinal attitude is + 3.5 ° with a 2.5° roll to the right and a descent rate of about -800 ft/min.
Probable Cause:
Causes: (translated from French)
Hard landing resulting from excessive vertical speed during touch down due to:
- pitch up command close to touch down (25 and 20 ft radio altitude);
- a late flare at a radio altitude of about 15 ft;
- an excessive indicated airspeed (Vapp + 17 kt during touchdown) and therefore a high rate of descent.
The high workload of the Pilot Flying caused by manual flying under conditions of high turbulent winds and the absence of announcement of interruption of the approach by the Pilot Monitoring despite the existence of objective unstabilized approach criteria after the passage of 200 ft did not allow the crew to make the decision to discontinue the approach.
Accident investigation:
|
Investigating agency: | BEA France |
Status: | Investigation completed |
Duration: | 5 years | Accident number: | f-hs111213 | Download report: | Final report
|
|
Classification:
Heavy landing
Landing after unstabilized approach
Runway mishap
METAR Weather report:
07:30 UTC / 08:30 local time:
METAR LFPG 130730Z 20026G38KT 8000 BKN011 10/09 Q0997 TEMPO 21025G45KT
Photos
Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does
not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport as the crow flies is 722 km (452 miles).
This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.