Description

On 21 March 2008, a Boeing 737-800 being operated by Ryanair on a scheduled passenger flight from Charleroi, Belgium to Limoges carried out a daylight approach at destination followed by a landing in normal ground visibility but during heavy rain and with a strong crosswind which ended with a 50 metre overrun into mud. None of the 181 occupants were injured but both engines were damaged by ingestion of debris.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the French BEA. It was established that the First Officer had been acting as PF. The crew stated that they did not pay attention to the wind information provided by the controller when the aircraft was on final approach. Unfortunately, a meteorological analysis showed that a cold front had, as forecast, been in the immediate vicinity of Limoges at the time of the landing and, as the wind veered, the tail wind component increased considerably, possibly briefly exceeding 30 knots at its worst. Rainfall measurements also showed that the aircraft touched down at the time of very heavy rain - 1.6 mm fell during the six minutes that included the landing.

The surface of the 2440 metre long runway was noted to be of “tarred concrete” and not grooved. It had an upward slope for the first half, but then descended at a maximum gradient of approximately 0.5%. Friction measurements made on a wet runway were recorded to show that the friction level was within the regulatory requirements.