News
Australia investigates SIA tailstrike incident and China Eastern has near miss at Hongqiao airport
October 14th 2016
The Australian Safety Transport Bureau (ATSB) has launched an investigation into a Singapore Airlines (SIA) “serious” tail strike incident at Melbourne’s Tullamarine on October 9 that led to the 30-minute closure of one of the airfield’s runways. Read More » The occurrence aircraft, a B777-300 registered as 9V-SYG, carried 282 passengers and crew and landed in Singapore without further incident.
“Air traffic control advised the crew that there had been a suspected tailstrike,” SIA told Orient Aviation. “The captain confirmed that there was no aircraft system alert of a tailstrike, and the flight continued to Singapore where an inspection was carried out. The inspection confirmed that there was no contact with the fuselage, however there had been contact with the tail skid system. The affected component was repaired and the aircraft returned to service on 11 October.”
In 2009, an Emirates Airline A340-500 struck its tail three times when departing from Melbourne and then barely cleared the airfield’s boundary fence before returning for an emergency landing. Total damage to the aircraft and runway was reportedly more than $75 million.
The world’s second deadliest air crash, following the 1977 Tenerife disaster, has been directly linked to a tail strike. In 1985, Japan Airlines (JAL) Flight 123 crashed into a mountainside 100kms from Tokyo after suffering from an explosive decompression caused by a faulty repair performed after a tailstrike incident during a landing seven years earlier.
Separately, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is probing the near collision of two China Eastern Airlines aircraft at Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport on Tuesday. An A320 was cleared for take-off as an A330 was crossing the runway after landing. Disaster was averted because the A320 pilot reacted quickly and pulled back on his controls, climbing over the A330 at unknown altitude. The CAAC described the scene as a “serious incident”. Preliminary investigations blamed ATC for giving the wrong instructions to the pilots.
