This video clip shows a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-900 coming in to land. It's too fast and too low, so it makes a bumpy arrival, bouncing clear into the air again. The spoilers deploy automatically on impact, dumping the wings' lift: but the plane's still moving too fast. As it touches down again, the pilot clearly decides that he's pushed his luck far enough for one day, and elects to take off again and go around for another try. Note the tail strike as he over-rotates the aircraft.
Methinks that pilot could do with some serious re-training . . .
Peter
Remind me NEVER to fly that airline! Wow.
ReplyDeleteNot pretty. I hear that the 737-900ER has a propensity for striking the tail, so much so that they gave it a two piece tail skeg WITH A BUILT IN SHOCK ABSORBER.
ReplyDeleteFormerFlyer
maybe he's still used to flying those fighters?
ReplyDeleteThe 737-900 is a longer airplane than the standard 737-800, that is probably why the pilot struck the tail, the 900 series aircraft havn't been around as long and the pilot transitioning out of the 800, the flight characteristic are a bit different. Also the plate that was struck does have a built in shock absorber, that is a standard feature on all Boeing aircraft. Once he lands, there will be a log entry for that and maintenance will check it to see if it was "outside tolerance" and effect a repair out of the Boeing AMM(Aircraft Maintenance Manual) Tailstrikes are fairly common. especially on the 737 series because they are lower to the ground than the airbus 320/319 and the other Boeing products.
ReplyDeleteI am an airplane mechanic by trade so I see stuff like this regularly.
Ouch! That makes my back hurt just watching...
ReplyDeleteLet's hear it for built Boeing tough!
Boeing thought about that. Here's a good view of the tail skid.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.b737.org.uk/tailskid.htm
Al_in_Ottawa
Give the pilot the benefit of the doubt. He may have just returned from the Central Asian run. Getting in and out of some of those airports is a VERY good idea.
ReplyDelete