What happened
On 3 July 2017, an Airbus A319-111, registration G-EZAW, was conducting a scheduled passenger flight from Edinburgh to Munich. While established on an ILS approach to Runway 26L, the aircraft's first Flight Management Guidance Computer (FMGC1) failed at approximately 1,500 ft AAL. This failure was accompanied by a cabin pressure landing elevation fault.
As the approach continued, the engines began to increase thrust without command. To manage the malfunction, the pilot flying disconnected both the autopilot and autothrust, transitioning to manual flight. This increased the crew's workload significantly. As the aircraft descended below 50 ft, a nose-down sidestick input occurred. The commander, focused on the runway, did not notice the change in pitch attitude until shortly before touchdown. The aircraft struck the runway with a vertical acceleration of 3.01 g, a level classified as a severe hard landing. There were no fatalities and no injuries among the 149 passengers or 6 crew members.
The investigation
The AAIB examined the aircraft's flight data recorder and conducted a physical inspection of the airframe. The inspection revealed that the nose and right main landing gear had sustained structural damage, including a buckled shock-absorber cylinder in the nose gear and components in the right main gear that were outside of acceptable tolerances. All three landing gear legs were subsequently replaced. Analysis of the flight data showed the aircraft reached a nose-down attitude of nearly 1° just before impact, with a descent rate of 11.9 ft/sec.
Findings
- The primary cause of the heavy touchdown was a nose-down pitch input made by the pilot flying just before landing.
- The crew was managing multiple simultaneous issues, including the FMGC1 failure and a cabin pressure fault.
- High pilot workload and distractions resulting from the equipment malfunctions likely contributed to the failure to recognize the incorrect landing attitude in time to correct it.