Tailstrike Serious incident de Havilland Canada DHC-8-402Q Dash 8 G-ECOJ,
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ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 200401
 
This record has been locked for editing.

Date:Monday 9 January 2017
Time:19:59 UTC
Type:Silhouette image of generic DH8D model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different    
de Havilland Canada DHC-8-402Q Dash 8
Owner/operator:Flybe
Registration: G-ECOJ
MSN: 4229
Year of manufacture:2008
Engine model:Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A
Fatalities:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 60
Aircraft damage: Minor
Category:Serious incident
Location:Newcastle Airport (NCL/EGNT) -   United Kingdom
Phase: Landing
Nature:Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:Southampton-Eastleigh Airport (SOU/EGHI)
Destination airport:Newcastle Airport (NCL/EGNT)
Investigating agency: AAIB
Confidence Rating: Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Narrative:
The crew were operating a scheduled flight from Southampton to Newcastle; the copilot was the handling pilot for the sector. The co-pilot completed his type conversion in November 2016 and had conducted 49 sectors on the aircraft as Pilot Flying at the time of the incident.
Weather conditions at Newcastle were reported as fine with a westerly wind of 13 kt. The crew briefed for an ILS approach to runway 25 at Newcastle, with a planned Flap 15 landing. This was in accordance with the operator’s recommendation of Flap 15 for runways of length greater than 2,000 m; the Landing Distance Available (LDA) for runway 25 is 2,125 m.
The approach was flown with the autopilot engaged. Flap15 was selected and, at 1,000 ft and 500 ft aal, the required stable approach criteria were met. Vref for the approach was 118 kt.
The autopilot was disconnected at 200 ft aal. At 100 ft aal power was reduced on each engine from 15 % torque to 8 % torque. Over the next four seconds, the speed reduced from 124 kt to 113 kt and the pitch attitude increased from 3.7° to 7.6°. The commander, sensing the aircraft sinking, advised the co-pilot to increase power and at 8 ft aal advanced the power levers himself. The aircraft touched down and bounced, the ‘TOUCHED RUNWAY’ caption illuminated and a triple warning chime sounded. The commander, aware that the tail had struck the runway, took control and landed the aircraft on the remaining runway.

The aircraft taxied to a parking stand where the passengers disembarked. Air traffic control were not immediately advised of the runway contact but were notified subsequently. The aircraft was inspected and minor damage to the Tail Strike Switch fairing was discovered.
A subsequent engineering inspection revealed no structural damage.


Conclusion
The tailstrike occurred because of an inappropriate reduction in power during the latter stages of the approach which put the aircraft into a reduced energy state. When it started to sink the instinctive response of the pilot flying was to increase the pitch attitude, instead of the recommended trained response of increasing power.

Accident investigation:
cover
  
Investigating agency: AAIB
Report number: EW/G2017/01/03
Status: Investigation completed
Duration:
Download report: Final report

Sources:



Revision history:

Date/timeContributorUpdates
15-Oct-2017 14:13 harro Added
15-Oct-2017 14:39 harro Updated [Source]

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