What happened
On 16 January 2014, an Airbus A3LE-214, registration EI-EZV, was performing a commercial passenger flight arriving at London Heathrow Airport. While executing an ILS approach to Runway 27L, the aircraft encountered light turbulence. As the aircraft reached the standard flare height, the crew reduced thrust; however, the rate of descent did not decrease accordingly. This resulted in a heavy touchdown. While there were no injuries to the 41 passengers, four members of the crew required treatment from paramedics for minor neck and back pain.
The investigation
The investigation examined flight data recorder (FDR) information to reconstruct the final seconds of the approach. The data revealed that the aircraft's airspeed at touchdown was roughly 130 kt. Although the crew attempted to manage the aircraft's attitude, the FDR showed that the amplitude of sidestick inputs from the pilot flying increased during the final 28 seconds of the flight. Specifically, in the two seconds immediately preceding contact with the runway, the pitch attitude shifted significantly from 1.5 degrees to 6.5 degrees nose-up. Despite these fluctuations in pitch, the average rate of descent remained largely unchanged throughout the final descent phase.
Findings
- The aircraft was operating using a flap 3 configuration, a practice recently adopted by the airline for long runways to increase aircraft responsiveness.
- The pilot flying engaged in over-controlling the pitch during the final stages of the approach.
- The late increase in nose-up pitch attitude occurred too late in the descent to effectively arrest the vertical speed.
- Light turbulence during the approach likely contributed to the instability of the pitch inputs.