‘Serious Incident’ Cited in Lufthansa Airbus Rough Landing
Munich — German aviation authorities on Friday cited a "serious incident" in their interim report about the causes of the perilous landing of a passenger-laden Lufthansa Airbus during a storm in Munich in August.
According to the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU), the aircraft touched down 18.8 metres before the threshold of runway 26L, running over three lamps and damaging seven tyres of the main landing gear. There were no injuries.
The authority classifies the event as a serious incident, which under German aviation regulations indicates that an accident nearly occurred.
The report does not name a concrete cause for the incident. The bureau's final report is expected to be available next year.
Thunderstorms and poor visibility
The Airbus was arriving from San Francisco on August 17 with 352 passengers and 24 crew members on board and made its final approach in intensifying rain and storm conditions, the report stated, citing the crew.
The approach and runway lighting was only partially recognizable, and according to data from the German Weather Service, visibility was down to 800 metres. The crew estimated the visibility to be at most 500 metres.
Because the classic instrument landing system (ILS) on the runway - where signals from the ground guide the aircraft down - was not available, a so-called required navigation performance (RNP) approach was decided upon, which runs via GPS satellites. Here, a computer system assists the pilots and calculates the GPS data.
According to readings on the flight data recorder, the aircraft still increasingly deviated downward from the flight path during final approach. At an altitude of around 9 metres above the ground the captain noticed that the aircraft was too low. Two seconds later, it touched down before the threshold.
The crew only found out after landing that lights at the threshold had been damaged. Only at the parking position did one pilot discover damage to tyres of the main landing gear and report it.
Just two days earlier, a near-catastrophe had occurred on the same runway, when a Vietnam Airlines aircraft barely managed to lift off and had to land back in Munich about two hours later. During the landing, smoke could be seen on the landing gear and tyres had burst.
No one was harmed in the incident, although experts believe the around 270 passengers and the crew only narrowly escaped a catastrophe. The BFU is still investigating this incident as well.
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