A332, Caracas Venezuela, 2013

A332, Caracas Venezuela, 2013

Summary

On 13 April 2013, an Air France Airbus A330-200 was damaged during a hard (2.74 G) landing at Caracas after the aircraft commander continued despite the aircraft becoming unstabilised below 500 feet agl with an EGPWS ‘SINK RATE’ activation beginning in the flare. Following a superficial inspection, maintenance personnel determined that no action was required and released the aircraft to service. After take off, it was impossible to retract the landing gear and the aircraft returned. Considerable damage from the earlier landing was then found to both fuselage and landing gear which had rendered the aircraft unfit to fly.

Description

On 13 April 2013, an Airbus A330-200 (F-GZCB) being operated by Air France on a scheduled passenger flight from Paris CDG to Caracas with an augmented crew present in the flight deck became unstable below 500 feet agl on an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach completed in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) but continued to a hard landing. Following an inspection, maintenance personnel determined that no action was required and released the aircraft to service. Later, after take off for Paris CDG, the (different) crew found that it was impossible to retract the landing gear and the aircraft returned to Caracas.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) which was informed by recorded flight data from the QAR and interviews. The relevant Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) data was overwritten.

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