THE CAPT ON HIS WALK AROUND NOTICED A BEND ON BOTH STRAKES. HE SUSPECTS THERE WAS A TAIL STRIKE ON A FLT THE PREVIOUS DAY. THAT FLT WAS REMEMBERED FOR A HARD LNDG AFTER BEING BALLOONED ABOUT 15 FT UP BY A WIND GUST FOLLOWED BY A SHARP DOWNDRAFT.

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AFTER DEPLANING FLT IN PHL ON MAR/TUE/96 I NOTICED A SLIGHT BEND ON THE L AFT STRAKE. UPON INSPECTION IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT BOTH AFT STRAKES WERE SLIGHTLY SCRAPED. MAINT IN JAX WAS IMMEDIATELY CONTACTED SINCE I SUSPECTED A TAIL STRIKE HAD OCCURRED. TO THE BEST OF OUR RECOLLECTION THE STRIKE COULD HAVE OCCURRED ON FLT IN IPT THE DAY PRIOR. WX CONDITIONS IN IPT: WX WAS RPTED AS 60 SCATTERED; HIGHER BROKEN AND WINDS OF 190 DEGS; 15 KTS; GUSTING TO 31 KTS WITH NO CONVECTIVE ACTIVITY. APCHING IPT MY FO AND I DISCUSSED RWY OPTIONS AND CONCLUDED THAT RWY 12 DUE TO LENGTH AND TERRAIN IN COMBINATION WITH ACFT LNDG WT (15811 LBS) WAS NOT A SUITABLE RWY. WE DECIDED THAT RWY 27 WOULD BE A BETTER CHOICE DUE TO VERT GUIDANCE OF GS AND LENGTH OF RWY. RWY 9 WAS NOT SUITABLE DUE TO TURB AND WINDSHEAR THAT IS COMMON TO THAT RWY WHEN THE WIND IS OUT OF THE S AND E. DUE TO GUSTS RPTED AT THE ARPT I ADDED 7 KTS TO OUR APCH SPDS. TURB DURING APCH WAS LIGHT WITH OCCASIONAL MODERATE CHOP. AIRSPD SHEARED +/-5 KTS DURING THE APCH FROM 1500 FT MSL TO THE RWY. IN THE FLARE; WITH THE PWR LEVERS TO IDLE; WE ENCOUNTERED A SUDDEN GUST OF WIND AND THE AIRPLANE CLBED APPROX 15 FT FOLLOWED BY A SHARP DOWNDRAFT THAT RESULTED IN A HARD LNDG. I FLEW THE NEXT 2 LEGS AND THEY WERE UNEVENTFUL. NO CHANGE IN FLT CHARACTERISTICS WERE NOTICED.