Factual Information
On 29 April 2023, at 0845 UTC, a Wizz Air Abu Dhabi Airbus A321-271NX, registration A6-WZG, was operating scheduled passenger flight WAZ25GR from Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, Azerbaijan to Abu Dhabi International Airport, United Arab Emirates. The aircraft carried 215 persons: 208 passengers, two flight crewmembers, and five cabin crewmembers.
During landing in gusty wind conditions, the main landing gear remained on the ground for approximately 17 seconds while the nose gear remained airborne. The aircraft experienced fluctuations in heading and drift. The flight crew subsequently initiated a go-around, during which a tail strike occurred for about three seconds until the aircraft lifted off. No injuries were reported.
Cause
The Air Accident Investigation Sector (AAIS) determined that the cause of the tail strike was improper high pitch control application when initiating the go-around while the airspeed was still low.
Contributing Factors
The AAIS identified several contributing factors:
- Gusty wind conditions during landing.
- The Commander, serving as Pilot Monitoring, did not witness the final portion of the radio altimeter and retard auto-callouts, and both flight crewmembers did not notice the Copilot adjusting to idle thrust before touchdown.
- After touchdown, the Copilot, as Pilot Flying, inadvertently moved the thrust levers into reverse without being aware of the action, and the Commander did not notice the movement.
- The Copilot's slight overuse of rudder inputs caused fluctuations from the runway centerline in heading and drift.
- Lack of clear communication between flight crewmembers, particularly the Copilot's omission to announce the initiation of the go-around and the Commander's subsequent cancellation, along with the Commander taking control, adversely affected Crew Resource Management (CRM).
- The Commander mistakenly perceived that the aircraft had excess energy without verifying the actual low airspeed before commencing the go-around.
Safety Recommendations
The AAIS issued three safety recommendations to the operator: 1. Include go-around techniques on low-energy rejected landing close to the ground in the flight crew training program and practice this in simulator training. 2. Emphasize the importance of the monitoring role, including callouts, to pilots serving as Pilot Monitoring. 3. Emphasize CRM requirements and identify CRM issues during pilot checks to address improvements in individual CRM skills and overall CRM efficiency.