What happened
During the initial touchdown phase of flight, the aircraft experienced a hard landing. The impact was significant enough to generate an acceleration of 1.9488 G's. Following this touchdown, the aircraft underwent four oscillations in the pitch axis, with the nose pitching up to a maximum of +5.98 degrees and down to a minimum of -2.46 degrees.
As a result of the impact, the nose tires failed, and damage was sustained to the general area of the nose landing gear support structure. Additionally, the aircraft suffered foreign object damage (FOD) to both the number one and number three engines.
The investigation
Analysis of Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data provided specific parameters regarding the impact. At the moment of touchdown, the throttle resolver angles for the three engines were recorded at 52.03 degrees for engine number one, 51.33 degrees for engine number two, and 49.22 degrees for engine number three.
Further examination of the FDR revealed that during the period of pitch oscillations, spoiler positions remained limited, never exceeding 8.0 degrees of deflection. The nose weight-on-wheels parameter also showed four distinct changes during the event.