Air taxi flight crew reported a bounced landing. After the bounce; the aircraft contacted the runway off centerline; bounced again and departed the runway surface. The flight crew maneuvered the aircraft back onto the runway with some damage to aircraft and runway lights.
Synopsis
Air taxi flight crew reported a bounced landing. After the bounce; the aircraft contacted the runway off centerline; bounced again and departed the runway surface. The flight crew maneuvered the aircraft back onto the runway with some damage to aircraft and runway lights.
Narrative
Day 0 XA:30 MDT flying [a] Learjet 35 we were cleared for a visual approach to Runway XXL at ZZZ. Weather in the area was a typical summer afternoon in the area with light winds and CAVOK conditions. We experienced a slight crosswind and small amount of light chop on approach; nothing out of the ordinary; particularly for this airport. Approach was made with a stable descent rate; on PAPI and within 10 knots of Vref; Pilot Monitoring (PM) called 'Vref + 5' crossing the threshold. On initial touchdown we bounced and veered to the right; initial touchdown was slightly to the right of the centerline. As we moved to the right of the runway; I called go around and applied take off power and attempted to correct back to the runway. As the airspeed bled off and the engines spooled up; we began to roll to the left and the aircraft touched down with takeoff power and hard on the left main gear; to the right of the runway. The left-wing tip contacted the ground; causing damage to the tip and left tip tank. We pulled power to idle and corrected back to the runway; as we crossed back on to the runway; several runway lights were damaged. At this point; PM took control of the aircraft and brought the aircraft to a stop. We shut down the aircraft at which point airport operations and Airport Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) support were on the scene. There were no injuries; both passengers declined medical treatment; they disembarked and were driven to their hangar by airport operations personnel.
Second reporter narrative
This was a Part 135 flight from ZZZ1 to ZZZ. NAME was Pilot In-Command (PIC) and Pilot Flying (PF). The flight was normal and no malfunctions on the airplane were noted. ZZZ Approach told us to expect the visual approach to ZZZ Airport Runway XXL and we set up for that. I believe that the PF had previously selected the frequency for the ILS to Runway YYR on his side. When I; the Pilot Not Flying (PNF) and Second In-Command (SIC); told Approach that we had the airport in sight; we were cleared for the visual. We were told to join final over the reservoir and contact the Tower. Upon contacting the Tower; I notified the controller that we were on a right base for Runway XXL. The airplane was configured for landing in the normal sequence with no abnormalities. The approach to Runway XXL was normal and stabilized the whole time. The one exception would be that; because the ILS frequency for the reciprocal runway was dialed in and receiving; the terrain warning sounded a few times. At each warning we both acknowledged that the conditions were visual and that the warning could be ignored. At the most this was a minor annoyance. Upon landing; the PF was on speed; but he was late to flare and subsequently bounced the aircraft off the nose and main landing gear. The aircraft went high into the air and started to drop back to the ground. At this point the centerline of the runway was well to the left of the aircraft. The airplane bounced again; and the PF applied full throttles stating that he was going around. I noted that we were diverging away from the runway. Because so much energy had been lost during the bounces and because the engines were slow to spool up the aircraft would not regain altitude. We came back down to the ground slightly off the pavement to the right of the runway. I believe that a degradation of control occurred; and the aircraft departed the runway fully and went onto the unimproved area abutting the pavement. We were moving at a high speed over unimproved terrain; and I was immediately concerned that we were going to dip a wing severely enough to make positive contact with the terrain with the possibility of an ensuing cartwheel (there was a point where the wing did contact a shallow embankment which tapers off from the runway surface as damage will show). I helped the PF on the controls and told him 'I got it.' I pulled the power back and managed to get the aircraft positioned on the runway again with the energy we had remaining. Unfortunately; it meant that I had to run over at least one runway edge identifier lamp. I believe that PF was still on the controls with me. I was able to bring the aircraft safely to a full stop. Incidentally; the weather was visual flight rules (conditions) with a slight crosswind reported by ATIS. The windsock showed that the wind was variable and light.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.