The aircraft crossed the threshold at the correct speed but it was a 'heavy' landing and the aircraft ballooned.(ie small not big bounce) The Tristar Aircrew Manual states
' To recover, hold or re-establish the landing attitude and allow the aircraft to sink back on to the runway. Apply power if necessary to control the rate of speed decay. Do not push hard forward on the control column. If a large bounce occurs, cary out a go-around.'
Going around after a heavy landing has proved very unwise in a lot of incidents (Vulcan at Malta, Tristar autoland at BZZ)
No one would have thanked the operating pilot for getting airborne again so that jonny bloody foreigner could have a go with his big catapult and the crew were unaware of the tail scrape until ATC mentioned that sparks had been seen during the landing run.
I'm sure that the genuinely experienced ME pilots amongst us can cast their minds back to a less than perfect landing and wonder what might have occured if they hadn't got away with it!
PS My mum thinks I'm good looking
