Originally Posted by HundredPercentPlease
Having just seen the 2 grooves at EMA, I just cannot understand how the aircraft did not end up in a million pieces smeared along the ground.
The grooves are very deep and have churned up a lot of soil. Difficult to tell from the HP, but maybe 1.5' deep for the main gear and a bit less for the engine.
The aircraft impacted closer to the taxiway than the runway (so at least a couple of aircraft widths from the runway) and it looks like only the RHS of the aircraft hit. So the yaw must have been phenomenal.
A miracle, that a 733 can kind of crash into the ground, with a good dig-in on one side, and then get airborne again. The FDR data will be very interesting.
When you see it, it is also unbelievable that the aircraft was so far off the runway centreline. Maybe this is why the ILS at EMA is now going to be off for a couple of months...
Good job they weren't carrying passengers - I can only imagine the headline in the Daily Mirror the next morning!!
