What happened
On July 2, 2013, SriLankan Airlines flight UL266, an Airbus A340-311 with registration 4R-ADA, was completing an automated landing at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo. The flight had originated from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. During the approach to runway 2 and 22, the flight crew performed a practice autoland, following a standard briefing regarding task sharing and go-around procedures.
As the aircraft descended, it encountered a high sink rate during the flare phase. This resulted in a hard landing and a subsequent tail strike. The impact caused damage to the aft fuselage belly skin panels and necessitated the replacement of the right main landing gear after it exceeded design load limits. There were no injuries to the passengers or crew.
The investigation
The investigation was conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board of Sri Lanka, with technical assistance from the Air Accident Investigation Bureau of Singapore for data decoding and the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) from France. Investigators analyzed the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) to reconstruct the flight parameters.
The team examined the aircraft's maintenance history, including recent A2, A3, and A4 checks, and found the airworthiness documentation and maintenance records to be satisfactory. The investigation also reviewed the flight crew's performance and the environmental conditions at the time of the incident.