Description

On 20 March 2009 an Airbus A340-500 being operated by Emirates Airline on a scheduled passenger flight from Melbourne to Dubai with an augmented (relief) crew occupying the two flight deck observer seats suffered a tail strike and did not become airborne until after the end of take off runway 16 at Melbourne at night in normal ground visibility. Only subsequently, when an ECAM (Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring) annunciation of a tail strike was apparent and ATC called, did the crew realise that a tail strike and overrun had occurred and it was decided to return to land to “assess the damage” with a ‘PAN’ was subsequently declared. An unusual noise accompanied by a cabin report of smoke in the rear cabin area just after completion of fuel dumping led to a precautionary request to ATC for a landing as soon as possible but a full inspection after coming to a stop on the runway founds no signs of fire and a normal taxi in to a gate was then made for disembarkation. None of the 275 occupants were injured but the aircraft rear lower fuselage and ground installations beyond the end of the departure runway struck by it were damaged.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data recording was found to have ceased as the aircraft had become airborne and this was attributed to the dislodgement of the FDR from its mounting rack immediately behind the rear pressure bulkhead to where it was found after the flight, lying (undamaged) on the lower fuselage skin below and slightly to the rear of the mounting rack. Fortunately, a DAR (Digital ACMS Recorder) was also fitted and had recorded most of the FDR parameters as well as others in Non-Volatile Memory (NVM).