2023-07 · NASA ASRS report 2016999
CRJ flight crew reported a hard landing when the trainee First Officer reduced power too early during the landing maneuver.
During the final phase of the landing into ZZZ; I was pilot flying on my IOE trip and Captain being the PM (Pilot Monitoring) for the leg. It was about (50-100ft above the Runway) as i was transitioning from final approach to roundout; I reduced the power too early and which cause the airspeed drop and the excessive descent rate resulted in hard landing. Captain quickly recognized the sink rate and added the power to arrest the descent But it was still flat and hard landing. Captain noted the landing and wrote the aircraft for the inspection. Contributing factors for this events are lack of experience in landing technique as well as breakdown in instrument scanning while flying visually to the Runway. Also low hours with the aircraft and being fairly new to busy airspace like ZZZ airport may cause the distractions while flying as well as task saturation during complex landing phase. To mitigate the recurrence; Captain and I debriefed the airspeed and power management during the landing phase and how important to fly the airplane until the aircraft's wheels touchdown. Also for decision to go around; we talked about based on the how much energy of the airplane we had at the moment and how close we were off the ground; it was better decision to perform the rejected landing to a go around. To conclude; I will definitely implement all the advices and will apply for future flying.
During approach to ZZZ; FO (First Officer) was flying on IOE and I was the Line Check Airman/PM (Pilot Monitoring) giving IOE. At around 50 feet; power was reduced too far and airspeed started to drop while we were too high above the Runway. When I realized what had happened and told the FO to add some power is was too late and we had excessive sink toward the Runway. My reaction was then to add power and arrest the descent before touchdown; but I was too slow to do so. It happened quickly and in that moment I was saturated trying to manage the landing so I did not see what our exact VSI was on touchdown; but I believe it was near 600 feet per minute. As a result; I wrote the aircraft up for a specter hard landing. The cause of this event was a combination of lack of proficiency in flying the aircraft and my not noticing the speed drop while I was trying to coach the FO in flying the plane. I should have noticed the power was too low and coached him to increase it. When I saw the airspeed start to drop; I should have taken controls immediately since we were so low. In the moment; I was trying to interpret what was happening based on the sight picture and instruments because I could 'feel' that something wasn't right; but instead of reacting to that feeling and taking controls; I tried to coach him so I didn't take away a landing opportunity. Reducing thrust excessively on approach/for landing is not an uncommon issue on IOE but I have been lucky enough to catch it earlier in the past. It would have been more appropriate for me to take controls and manage the aircraft energy or initiate a go-around; tho at the phase a go-around could have been very challenging. In the future; I will faster to take the controls during highly critical phases such as landing before it becomes a problem; even if it means taking a potential opportunity away from my Student. There certainly are situations where it appropriate to allow Students to learn by experience; but the landing phase is too critical to allow that. In debrief; I explained to my Student that it is important to keep flying the aircraft all the way to the Runway; which means correcting speed deviations even if you are just over the Runway all the way up until a peer reduction is require for touch down. I also explained that it is very important to monitor airspeed; especially if a power change has been made; even if you are crossing the threshold and close to landing; as the speed needs to be managed all the way to approximately 30 feet ago. I noticed a marked improvement on his next approach and landing after this debrief.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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