Description

On 28 February 2013, an Airbus 321 (VQ-BOC) being operated by Ural Airlines on a scheduled passenger flight (3027) from Perm to Hurghada with an augmented crew sustained a tail strike during the initial night landing attempt at destination after a Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) approach before successfully completing a second landing attempt on the same runway. Inspection of the aircraft after flight revealed that the lower tail section of the aircraft was structurally damaged.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Egyptian Ministry of Transport Air Incident Investigation Central Directorate (AAICD). Recorded data relevant to the Investigation was recovered from both the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). It was noted that a third pilot formed part of the operating crew for the flight concerned.

It was noted that both operating pilots were familiar with Hurghada. It was also found that whilst the total flying experience of the First Officer (over 15,000 hours) was almost five times that of the aircraft commander, a lot of this had been obtained on the Tu154 and relatively very little of it (757 hours) on the A320 series, on which type the commander had obtained the majority of his 3498 hours.