What happened
On November 18, 2009, a Dassault Falcon 900EX was performing an IFR approach to runway 25 at Emden airport. The flight, which originated in Braunschweig, was operating in heavy, gusty winds, with gusts reaching up to 30 knots. To account for these conditions, the crew increased the approach speed (Vref) from 116 knots to 128 knots.
The aircraft touched down approximately 214 meters beyond the runway threshold. Following touchdown, the crew deployed the airbrakes and moved the throttles for the two outer engines to idle. However, the crew attempted to use the thrust reverser on the center engine. During this process, the thrust reverser failed to reach the fully deployed position, remaining in a transitional state. This malfunction caused the engine to produce forward thrust while the crew believed they were utilizing reverse thrust, effectively working against the aircraft's braking efforts.
Approximately eight seconds after touchdown, the pilot flying considered a go-around but quickly aborted the decision. As the aircraft continued to roll, the crew retracted the thrust reverser at a distance of about 665 meters along the runway. Despite the retraction, the aircraft could not stop within the remaining runway length. The aircraft overran the end of the runway at approximately 15 knots ground speed, striking a concrete base of a runway light. The impact caused the nose gear to collapse, and the aircraft came to a stop shortly thereafter. There were no fatalities among the three crew members and five passengers.
The investigation
The BFU investigation examined the flight data recorder (DFDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) to reconstruct the sequence of events. The investigation focused on the aircraft's deceleration parameters, the mechanical state of the thrust reverser, and the runway conditions. Investigators analyzed the engine performance, noting that the thrust reverser's failure to fully deploy was due to the guide vanes remaining stuck in a transitional position. The investigation also examined the physical impact with the runway lighting infrastructure and the resulting damage to the aircraft's airframe and nose gear.