B738, Darwin Australia, 2016

B738, Darwin Australia, 2016

Summary

On 6 December 2016, a Boeing 737-800 approaching Darwin at night in the vicinity of thunderstorm activity suddenly encountered very heavy rain just before landing which degraded previously good visual reference. After drifting right of centreline just before and after touchdown, the right main gear left the runway for 400 metres before regaining. The landing and taxi-in was subsequently completed. The Investigation attributed the excursion to difficulty in discerning lateral drift during the landing flare to an abnormally wide runway with no centreline lighting in poor night visibility and noted similar previous outcomes had been consistently associated with this context.

Description

On 6 December 2016, a Virgin Australia Airlines Boeing 737-800 (VH-VUI) being operated on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Melbourne to Darwin departed the side of the 60 metre-wide 3354 metres long destination runway 29 at night after a ILS Category 1 approach in night VMC when shortly before landing, the previously good visibility had been suddenly reduced in very heavy rain. A drift away from the unlit runway centreline thereafter went undetected and the crew did not realise that the aircraft had left the paved surface soon after touchdown. Inspection of the aircraft on its parking gate after engine shut down found all right main gear tyres had sustained significant damage. After TC had been advised of this, six runway edge lights were found to have been destroyed leaving associated debris on and near the runway edge.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). Data from the aircraft FDR was downloaded and provided useful information on the precise trajectory of the aircraft.

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