E145, Sittwe Myanmar, 2017

E145, Sittwe Myanmar, 2017

Summary

On 18 September 2017, an Embraer 145EP made a hard landing at Sittwe on the first of four flights that day. Clearly evident damage from what FDR data showed had been at least a 4.2g touchdown was not noticed during the pre-flight external inspection or during the two subsequent flights. Extensive structural damage was only identified during a routine overnight inspection. It was noted that one of the inspections which failed to detect damage had been carried out by a licensed engineer and that the aircraft Captain had at no stage reported or recorded a suspected hard landing.

Description

On 18 September 2017, an Embraer 145EP (XY-ALE) being operated by Air Mandalay Airlines on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Yangon to Sittwe followed an unstable approach with a very hard (over 4g) landing. The flight crew did not detect any of the resulting serious wing damage and the aircraft continued in service for three further flights before the damage, which had rendered the aircraft unfit to fly, was discovered.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Myanmar Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). Data relevant to the Investigation was successfully downloaded from the FDR but that from the 2 hour CVR had been overwritten because it continued to run until the end of the days flying programme when the damage was discovered.

The 62 year-old Captain, who had been acting as PF for the investigated flight had accumulated 17,878 total flying hours which included 1,151 hours on type and the 39 year-old First Officer had 6,174 total flying hours which included 1,002 hours on type.

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