Hard Landing Down Under

A Qantas plane "bounced" on the runway at Darwin (AU) airport causing major damage to the bottom of the aircraft, according to a transport safety report.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's preliminary report into the "hard landing" of the Boeing 717-200 on February 7, 2008 was released March 27, 2008.

It found the that the Boeing 717, carrying 88 passengers and six crew was descending (read FALLING) at a rate of 1000 feet per minute when it hit the runway. They were not even kind enough to call it an attempted landing.

Damage to the aircraft included several creases to the skin on the fuselage above the wing area and underneath the fuselage behind the wing. The left main landing gear and outside left main tire were also damaged.

The plane is being repaired and expected to be airworthy again in late April.

In other fuselage creasing news, return to Contact Ground .9 and see the Algerian 737-800 rough landing pictures and story.

737 Lands Hard, Front-Left Nosewheel First

There is not much to say other than wow, that must have been a hard and very unique landing. As the title indicates, it was a left nosegear wheel first landing, like a fatty riding a small unicycle. Apparently the landing put a little too much pressure on the airframe, and this is the result. Too bad no video has surfaced of said landing. All the we know so far is that this incident occurred on a Air Algerie Boeing 737-800 flight from Paris (Flight #AH1143) when it landed at Setif Ain Arnat (DAAS/GSF) in Algeria.

I'm sure a good A&P could buff this little problem away, don't you think?

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