Description

On 5 February 2010, a McDonnell Douglas MD 81 being operated by SAS on a non scheduled passenger flight from Copenhagen to Grenoble carried out a normal ILS approach to runway 09 in dark night Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) conditions, but the touchdown was made with the aircraft at an excessive pitch angle and higher than normal rate of descent and a tail strike occurred. Serious damage was caused to the rear lower fuselage but none of the 131 occupants were injured and a normal taxi-in and disembarkation followed.

Investigation

An Investigation into the accident was carried out by the French BEA. Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data was available but it was found that the 30 minute Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) recording had been overwritten as a result of the failure of the Operator to ensure that the recorder remained unpowered after the aircraft arrived on stand after the incident landing.

It was established that the First Officer had been PF for the approach and landing and noted that a significant gap in age and experience, including type experience, had existed between the two pilots. It was also noted that, after a period on sick leave due to stress, the First Office was serving a period of notice prior to redundancy.