NTSB: A321neo Exceeded ‘Hard Landing Threshold’

The Nationwide Transportation Security Board (NTSB) has launched its preliminary report on the Frontier A321neo incident that occurred in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on April 15. Flight 3506, working from Orlando, skilled a tough touchdown that resulted in touchdown gear injury and engine points throughout a go-around try.

Based on the company’s preliminary findings, the incident occurred at roughly within the night when the A321neo – registered as N607FR – tried to land at Luis Munoz Marin Worldwide Airport. The primary officer was the pilot flying with the captain serving as pilot monitoring in the course of the night time method.

The method was reported as steady, although it required a slight lateral correction to keep up centerline whereas descending by way of roughly 150 to 100 ft above floor degree, the report said. Because the plane descended to about 15 ft, the captain famous the jet was too excessive, prompting the primary officer to provoke a correction with a shallow descent adopted by a gradual flare.

“The FO recalled that in the course of the method, she introduced the thrust levers again to idle at 20 ft RA whereas the RETARD aural alert sounded,” investigators shared.

Because the plane was about to landing, the captain known as for a go-around and took management, believing the “plane was operating out of flying pace shortly, because the throttles had been retarded and the pitch perspective was growing.”

The airplane subsequently touched down firmly, with flight information recorder info exhibiting a most recorded vertical acceleration of roughly 2.2g — exceeding the onerous touchdown threshold of 1.8g laid out in Frontier’s plane upkeep guide.

Preliminary Findings

The NTSB investigation revealed that in the course of the go-around try, the crew heard a loud bang from beneath the fuselage, and the primary officer famous an engine failure displayed on the digital centralized plane monitor. Whereas the air visitors management tower reported an engine hearth, the flight crew indicated they solely obtained an engine failure warning.

Submit-incident inspection confirmed the nostril touchdown gear’s left wheel and tire had separated from its axle in the course of the preliminary onerous touchdown. The report said that one of many wheel halves had fractured, and quite a few scratches and gouges had been discovered on the nostril touchdown gear, together with injury to the tow becoming.

Lacking wheel on A321neo (Picture: NTSB)

Steel fragments from the wheel meeting seem to have been ingested by the No. 1 (left) engine, inflicting injury to the engine’s inlet cowl liner, thrust reverser, fan blades, and information vanes. The left inboard trailing edge flaps had been additionally broken, although the NTSB famous that none of this injury met the definition of “substantial” or affected the plane’s flight management system.

After the preliminary landing and go-around, the flight crew carried out a low move by the management tower to verify the touchdown gear standing earlier than efficiently touchdown on runway 8. The 235 passengers and crew had been evacuated by way of airstairs with no reported accidents.

In its report, the NTSB famous that in January 2021, Airbus printed an article titled “A Give attention to the Touchdown Flare” of their Security First journal, which analyzed operational pitfalls and finest practices in the course of the touchdown flare part — doubtlessly related to the investigation of this incident.

Climate circumstances on the time of the incident had been reported as visible meteorological circumstances with few clouds at 2,500 ft, visibility of 10 miles, and light-weight winds at 3 knots from 100 levels.

The plane continues to remain out of service on the time of writing.

Ryan based AirlineGeeks.com again in February 2013 and has amassed appreciable expertise within the aviation sector. His work has been featured in a number of publications and information retailers, together with CNN, WJLA, CNET, and Enterprise Insider. Throughout his time within the trade, he is labored in roles pertaining to airport/airline operations whereas holding a B.S. in Air Transportation Administration from Arizona State College together with an MBA. Ryan has expertise in a number of aspects of the trade from behind the yoke of a Cessna 172 to interviewing airline trade executives. Ryan works for AirlineGeeks’ proprietor FLYING Media, spearheading protection within the industrial aviation house.

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