What happened
During a scheduled check flight involving both members of the flight crew, the aircraft was performing an approach to runway 35 at Canberra Airport. During this maneuver, the approach became unstable. Rather than initiating a go-around to stabilize the flight path, the crew continued the descent. This resulted in an increasing rate of descent that was not corrected prior to contact with the runway, leading to a hard landing.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the factors that led to the unstable approach and the subsequent failure to execute a go-around. The analysis examined the sequence of events leading to the touchdown and the reasons why the descent rate was not reduced before the aircraft reached the runway.