Airbus A320 Hard Landing at El Tepual Airport

Incident Overview and Flight Details On February 21, 2020, an Airbus A320-232 operated a combined passenger and training flight from Santiago's Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCEL) to El Tepual Airport (SCTE) in Puerto Montt, Chile. The aircraft carried 172 passengers and 7 cabin crew members. The flight crew consisted of a 58-year-old Chilean captain serving as pilot monitoring, a 23-year-old Chilean commercial pilot trainee serving as pilot flying, and a 48-year-old Venezuelan instructor evaluator in the observer seat. ## Approach and Landing Sequence The crew planned and briefed an RNAV (GNSS) Y approach to runway 17 at SCTE, though the investigation noted that some steps from the Flight Crew Techniques Manual were omitted. The aircraft's autopilot was disengaged at 980 feet, after which the trainee pilot continued the approach manually. During the descent, the aircraft exceeded the appropriate rate of descent for its speed at certain moments. After crossing the runway 17 threshold, the flare maneuver was not performed, resulting in a hard contact with the runway. ## Damage and Safety Outcomes All 179 individuals on board, including the flight crew and passengers, were unharmed. The aircraft sustained damage, with both main landing gears found to be overloaded beyond their limits during a final evaluation at a foreign maintenance center in Colombia, leading to their replacement. A fastener in the FR63-FR64 area was also found out of limits during the preliminary evaluation at SCTE. ## Environmental and Operational Factors Weather conditions at the time of landing were clear, with a METAR reporting CAVOK conditions, a temperature of 28°C, and a QNH of 1015 hPa. The PAPI lights were operational, but the REDL and REIL lights were not illuminated. Communications with air traffic control were unremarkable, and no abnormality was reported prior to the landing. The aircraft's landing weight of 60,727 kg was within the maximum permitted limit of 64,500 kg.