What happened
A scheduled flight operated by a crew of four was performing a multi-leg mission originating in Luxembourg, traveling via Saarbulence to Hamburg, and returning. On the day of the incident, the aircraft, a Bombardier DHC-8-402, was operating a leg from Luxembourg to Saarbrucken carrying 14 passengers, with an additional 16 passengers intended for the return leg to Luxembourg. The flight crew had completed pre-flight preparations early and were ahead of their planned schedule.
During the takeoff roll at Saarbrucken, the pilot in command elected to use a reduced engine thrust setting of 81%. As the aircraft accelerated through the rotation phase, reaching approximately 127 KIAS with a 5-degree nose-up attitude, the landing gear retracted unexpectedly. This premature retraction led to a tail strike at 10:16:44 hrs. Following the initial contact, the aircraft bounced three times and eventually came to a halt approximately 875 meters from the point of impact after skidding on its fuselage. Due to the presence of smoke and fumes within the cabin, an immediate evacuation was performed. There were zero fatalities and zero injuries among the passengers and crew.
Findings
The investigation determined that the primary cause of the accident was the early retraction of the landing gear during takeoff, a movement that was not intercepted by the landing gear selector lever or the aircraft's retracting control logic. Several contributing factors were identified, including:
- A decrease in crew concentration levels.
- A disruption in the established callout sequence and task management by the pilot non-flying.
- The manual movement of the landing gear lever to the UP position prematurely.
- A design flaw in the control logic that permitted the gear to retract while one wheel was still airborne.