What happened
On January 7, 2020, at 06:12 UTC, a Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration TC-CCK, was completing a commercial flight from Sharjah (OMSJ) to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (LTFJ). During the landing phase, the crew was operating under challenging meteorological conditions, including significant wind gusts and recent reports of windshear from preceding traffic.
While executing the landing, the aircraft experienced a hard landing with a vertical acceleration of 2.605 G. This impact caused the aircraft to bounce, resulting in a simultaneous heavy impact of the nose and right main landing gear. Following the impact, the aircraft drifted left of the runway centerline and exited the paved surface onto the unpaved ground. There were no fatalities or injuries among the 158 passengers and 6 crew members, though the aircraft sustained light damage.
The investigation
The UEİM investigation examined the flight data recorder (FDR), cockpit voice recorder (CVR), and maintenance logs. The investigation reviewed the meteorological conditions, which included winds of 24 knots gusting to 36 knots. The investigators also analyzed the flight crew's control inputs during the landing roll and the subsequent recovery efforts by airport services.
Findings
- The captain failed to correctly apply crosswind landing techniques, specifically using incorrect rudder and aileron inputs relative to the wind direction.
- The aircraft experienced a hard landing characterized by a significant G-load.
- The aircraft exited the runway due to the captain's application of left rudder.
- The first officer failed to intervene or take corrective action during the excursion.
- The aircraft sustained damage to both engines due to Foreign Object Debris (FOD), as well as damage to the nose landing gear, flaps, and fuselage sections.
- The runway excursion caused significant operational disruption, leading to the cancellation of 615 flights and a 21-hour runway closure.
Safety action
- Recommendations were made to Pegasus Airlines to implement proactive monitoring of crosswind landing techniques and to develop methods for evaluating vertical acceleration trends to manage hard landing risks.
- It was recommended that simulator training include scenarios for first officers to effectively respond to pilot errors.
- Recommendations were issued to airport authorities (HEAŞ) to improve ARFF (Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting) response efficiency to reduce runway closure durations.