Unstable Approach and Off-Runway Touchdown at Paris-Orly

Incident Overview and Flight Details On 4 July 2009, a Royal Air Maroc Boeing 737-800, registration CN-ROK, was operating a scheduled international passenger flight from Casablanca to Paris-Orly. The incident occurred at 13:53 UTC during an approach to runway 20. The flight crew consisted of a captain (pilot flying) and a first officer (pilot monitoring). The event resulted in damage to two wheels. ## Approach and Maneuvering The aircraft was initially cleared for an ILS approach to runway 24. At 13:45:55 UTC, the approach controller proposed a visual maneuver (MVL) to runway 20 to alleviate congestion at the runway 24 holding point. The crew accepted the proposal. The aircraft was established on the ILS 24 localizer and descended below the glide path. At approximately 1,400 ft, the captain disengaged the autopilot. The aircraft was configured for landing at 1,250 ft with flaps 30°, but was at 168 kt against a selected speed of 152 kt. ## Touchdown and Aftermath At 13:52:55 UTC, the controller cleared the aircraft to land on runway 20. The captain disengaged the auto-throttle at 830 ft. At 400 ft, the aircraft began a left turn to align with runway 20. The crew overshot the runway 20 centerline extension and continued the turn. At 85 ft radio altitude, the minimum heading was 184°. At 40 ft, the aircraft was at heading 201° with a 14° right bank. Thrust was advanced at approximately 20 ft. The right main gear touched down to the left of the runway at heading 210° with a 10° bank, experiencing a vertical acceleration of 2.14 g. After a short bounce, the aircraft re-lifted. The aircraft subsequently landed on runway 24 at 14:07 UTC without further incident. ## Contributing Factors The unavailability of runway 08/26 caused saturation of runway 24. The use of runway 20 for landings was not included in operating instructions, and its PAPI was extinguished. The controller's late proposal of the MVL procedure left the crew with insufficient preparation time. No specific approach procedure for runway 20 was published at the time. The crew's decision to improvise a joining trajectory from the runway 24 final with a tailwind component was incompatible with the operator's stabilization criteria, leading to an unstable approach.