Description

On 5 March 2013, the aft-stationed cabin crew of an Airbus A330-300 (D-AIKJ) being operated by Lufthansa on a scheduled international passenger flight from Chicago O'Hare to Munich advised the flight crew after the night normal visibility take-off that they had heard "an unusual noise" during take-off. Noting that nothing unusual had been heard in the flight deck and that there were no indications of any abnormal system status, the Captain decided, after consulting Company maintenance, that the flight should be completed as planned. The flight proceeded uneventfully but on arrival in Munich, it became clear that the aircraft had sustained "substantial damage" due to a tailstrike on take-off and was unfit for flight.

Investigation

The NTSB delegated the Investigation to the German BFU. The FDR and CVR were downloaded but relevant data from the latter had been overwritten during the subsequent flight. Based on the severity of the damage found, the occurrence was classified as an accident by the BFU.