Incident Overview
On 11 July 2011, at 0820 hours local time, a floatplane registered 8Q-TMD departed from the water runway of Malé International Airport for a routine training flight. The destination was Maadhiggaru Falhu, a lagoon approximately 15 nautical miles southwest of the airport. Weather conditions were clear with good visibility, and wind was from the west and southwest at 8–10 knots.
Flight Details
During the training session, the crew performed five take-offs and landings, all within the lagoon, simulating various flight conditions. For the final landing, the crew chose to land on open water outside the lagoon. They were simulating a single-engine landing with a tailwind. According to the crew, the initial touchdown was smooth. However, the aircraft subsequently struck a wave, causing it to bounce to an altitude of approximately 20 feet. With low power, the aircraft struck the water again, resulting in the failure of multiple float attachments.
Damage
The impact caused both front and main spreader bars to break, and the floats rose up in a twisted configuration, striking the engine bottom cowlings. Evidence of propeller contact was found on the top front of both floats.
Probable Cause
The official investigation determined the probable cause to be impact with a high swell during landing, followed by a high bounce and hard landing, resulting in both float attachments being damaged and detached with major structural damage. A major contributing factor was higher than normal touchdown speed due to abnormal landing configuration. Contributing factors included selection of an inappropriate landing site (channel) and landing direction (tailwind) based on surface conditions present at that time, simulation of multiple emergencies, abnormal landing configuration (flaps at zero) for a single-engine landing, and time pressure to complete the training and return to commercial operations.