Lufthansa Cargo flight 8258 , tail strike

Created on Wednesday, 27 November 2013 09:42 |

24 November 2013

Lufthansa Cargo flight GEC-8258 , McDonnell Douglas MD-11 registration D-ALCE from Dakar Senegal to Sao Paulo Campinas Viracopos airport it was going to land at Campinas airport on runway 15 but had a tail strike.The crew went around and after a second approach landed safely

On February 2014 the German BFU in their monthly bulletin reported that airplane it was going to intercept the ILS runway 15 descending from 7000 feet to 4500 feet when first officer(30, CPL, 3,626 hours total, 1,693 hours on type) said that airplane it was little bit higher for the approach the captain(50, ATPL, 10,131 hours total, 4,010 hours on type) said all will go ok.Slats were extended before the final turn at 5500 MSL and airplane aligned with the localizer at 4400 MSL , 220 KIAS speed and flaps set to 15 and captain announced "non standard gear down".5 sec later airplane was cleared to land from Campinas tower.At 3800 feet MSL flaps set to 28 and after 20 secs flaps set to 35 degrees.17 sec later the captain disengaged the autopilot and set flaps to 50.At 170 KIAS and 2800 feet MSL(920 feet AGL) flaps reached final position(50) the checklist completed and automatic messaged sounded "minimums" captain said continue F/O agreed checked.

24 sec after the minimums sound airplane touched down at 152 knts with vertical acceleration +1.6G , nose up 7 degrees and wings were at level position.After 1 sec airplane's vertical acceleration went to +0.6G and 1 sec after to +1.3G.After that both pilots called a go-around and the pitch attitude went from +6 to +12.5 degrees in 4.5 sec

According to flight data recorder all three thrust reverser it was "in transit" after the second vertical acceleration of +1.3G then "deployed" for 1.5sec for the tail engine and 1 sec for the wing engines, then the

thrust reverser it was again "in transit"

While all this captain announced flaps 28 and said "don't accept power" the pitch angle reduced to +3.2 then began to increase again , captain said trim , trim up , sound of stabilizer sounded.The speed that had reduced to 118kias began to increase again and at 144 kias and nose up 15 degrees , 28 sec after touchdown it was on air again.The stall warning was sounded for about 4 sec.Airplane climbed to 7000 feet and after a second approach landed safely

In a post interview the captain said that he had the impression that it was a normal approach with bounce.When they called for a go around they couldn't to move the thrust levers in front and only with big force they succeed to do this

The German BFU rated the occurrence like accident and said that airplane receive damage to tail section

METARS

SBKP 240900Z 13010KT 9999 FEW048 BKN080 18/16 Q1015
SBKP 240800Z 14012KT 9999 FEW048 17/16 Q1014

D-ALCE