Bent-up winglet on LH A320

[flyboy 28]

Video
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ddb_1204404185

Discussion
http://www.airliners.net/discussions/ge ... 76/#menu51

Picture (not mine)

[beaky]

Holy moley!  :o
The scariest part was when they decided to go around... after striking a wingtip!   :-/ I know they were basically out of room, but I'd take an overrun over flying on a damaged wing any day!

That approach was just all wrong, from top to bottom... they were reluctant to go around after it bobbled on final, and look what happened... they wound up going around anyway- with damage, yet.

Somebody's going to be sweating in the simulator for a while...

[expat]

Holy moley!  :o
The scariest part was when they decided to go around... after striking a wingtip!   :-/ I know they were basically out of room, but I'd take an overrun over flying on a damaged wing any day!

That approach was just all wrong, from top to bottom... they were reluctant to go around after it bobbled on final, and look what happened... they wound up going around anyway- with damage, yet.

Somebody's going to be sweating in the simulator for a while...

I the defense of the crew, what is not really shown or reported is that they where trying to land with a crosswind that was the tail end of Hurricane Emma that was passing through Germany at the time. This landing was early Saturday morning. You should have been awake at at 02:00, I though that I would find my garden shed, the children's climbing frame and my garage a few streets away.

Matt

[Brett_Henderson]

[b]G O

[expat]

G O   A R O U N D  

The decision to try and make that approach stick (Rotty's right..  the only thing proper about that approach is that they were descending) was as poor as they come. He came within a gnat's whisker of killing many people  :(

A good example of tunnel vision and press-on-itus.

Matt

[Brett_Henderson]

A good example of tunnel vision and press-on-itus.

Matt

Indeed.. and I have to admit... I've been there; and like these guys.. luckily lived to learn  :)

[C]

Right decision, probably/certainly a couple of seconds too late. Having said that, I don't think they had any other option than to go around even after the tip strike, make a second or even third approach. I think I'd take the chance than let the aircraft, which was barely under control, slew laterally off the runway into the soft stuff, with the ensuing evacuation.

[beaky]

Right decision, probably/certainly a couple of seconds too late. Having said that, I don't think they had any other option than to go around even after the tip strike, make a second or even third approach. I think I'd take the chance than let the aircraft, which was barely under control, slew laterally off the runway into the soft stuff, with the ensuing evacuation.

It's a tough call, but believe me, being in the air with damage you can't even see is no fun at all!! I don't recommend it!!
It's possible they somehow deduced it would still fly OK, but my guess is it was almost instinctive. They got lucky.

It's possible they could have stopped it safely: they were all the way on the downwind side of the runway and had enough control to take off again, so they might have steered it towards the far upwind corner and laid on the brakes and reverse thrust... might have resulted in lots of damage, but the sight of them lifting off after scraping that wing was almost too much for me!  :o

[C]

It's a tough call, but believe me, being in the air with damage you can't even see is no fun at all!! I don't recommend it!!

It's possible they somehow deduced it would still fly OK, but my guess is it was almost instinctive. They got lucky.

That's a wing designed to hold over 80/90 tonnes of aeroplane in all sort of weather and turbulence with a factor of redundency, and I doubt the tip scrape would have resulted in any more than initial light damage - certainly nothing that would compromise another approach (although diverting to a non crooswind runway could be prudent if worried about control suface damage)

It's possible they could have stopped it safely: they were all the way on the downwind side of the runway and had enough control to take off again, so they might have steered it towards the far upwind corner and laid on the brakes and reverse thrust... might have resulted in lots of damage, but the sight of them lifting off after scraping that wing was almost too much for me!  :o

They were struggling with directional control anyway, and by the time they'd got it stable enough to apply brake and use nosewheel steering it may have gone off the other side, or back off to that side.

Tricky, but I suspect they just about made the right call.

[Brett_Henderson]

Tricky, but I suspect they just about made the right call.

The right call would have been to go around while still 50-100 feet above terra-firma.. when that approach deteriorated

[beaky]

Tricky, but I suspect they just about made the right call.

The right call would have been to go around while still 50-100 feet above terra-firma.. when that approach deteriorated  

Amen... as I said, they wound up going around anyway... praying every second that it wasn't more than just a scrape.  The pax must've been freaking, especially those who saw the wing touch tarmac (the crew could not).
Can't say I could do any better; nobody's perfect... but that approach was a bad idea from the top of final, if you ask me.

[Hagar]

[smiley=door.gif] Don't worry, This is one argument I'm not getting involved with.

The A320 apparently landed safely on a different runway. I found photos of the damage if anyone is interested. http://www.hamburg-airport-friends-forum.de/showthread.php?tid=763&pid=2607#pid2607

Conditions had apparently been terrible all day & the A320 was not the only one to experience problems with gusting. Note a couple of shots of an Air Berlin 737 landing on the same runway earlier. There was a video of the 737 landing posted on YouTube that has since been removed.

I found this video of a TAP A321 in very similar circumstances at Lisbon in 2002. At least, I assume it's an A321. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4f9ZZxoUKE&feature=related

[C]

Tricky, but I suspect they just about made the right call.

The right call would have been to go around while still 50-100 feet above terra-firma.. when that approach deteriorated  

Quite. I'll rephrase my comment - having let the situation deteriorate to the stage it had, they just about made the right call!

Partly following on from Sean's last comment, I wonder how many airliners every day make less than satisfactory approaches (ie, bordering on/or being unsafe, such as this one) because the 2 chaps upfront either don't want to lose face by admitting it's a poor approach (for whatever reason) and going around, or due to commercial pressures of sticking it on the ground asap?

Just a thought.

[beaky]

Tricky, but I suspect they just about made the right call.

The right call would have been to go around while still 50-100 feet above terra-firma.. when that approach deteriorated  

Quite. I'll rephrase my comment - having let the situation deteriorate to the stage it had, they just about made the right call!

Partly following on from Sean's last comment, I wonder how many airliners every day make less than satisfactory approaches (ie, bordering on/or being unsafe, such as this one) because the 2 chaps upfront either don't want to lose face by admitting it's a poor approach (for whatever reason) and going around, or due to commercial pressures of sticking it on the ground asap?

Just a thought.

It seems rare... I've been riding in cigar-tubes fairly often the last few years, often in unfavorable conditions, and so far I have yet to see anything other than top-notch flying.
But mistakes are made from time to time...  I'm glad I wasn't aboard when this happened:

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/newark.new ... 39280.html

[C]

It seems rare... I've been riding in cigar-tubes fairly often the last few years, often in unfavorable conditions, and so far I have yet to see anything other than top-notch flying.
But mistakes are made from time to time...  I'm glad I wasn't aboard when this happened:

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/newark.new ... 39280.html

Blimey. Not clever.