What happened
On 18 March 2006, an Air Algerie B737-600, registration 7T-VJQ, was performing a non-scheduled international passenger flight from Oran, Algeria, to Seville, Spain. As the aircraft approached runway 27 at Seville Airport, it encountered severe weather conditions characterized by heavy rain and stormy weather.
The flight crew was cleared to land at their discretion due to the weather. During the final approach, the aircraft was flying in manual mode. Upon touchdown on the wet runway, the aircraft experienced a very hard impact. This force caused the right main landing gear leg to collapse. Following the impact, the aircraft came to a stop on the runway, and an emergency evacuation was conducted using the aircraft's emergency ramps. There were no serious injuries among the 101 passengers and 6 crew members on board, and no fire occurred during the incident.
The investigation
The CIAIAC investigation examined the flight data from the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). The investigation focused on the aircraft's descent profile, the meteorological conditions at the time of arrival, and the structural integrity of the landing gear. Investigators analyzed the fracture mechanism of the right main landing gear support structure and reviewed the cockpit communications, which noted the presence of a storm and the crew's decision to fly the approach manually to better manage the wind and weather conditions.