Tail strike at Faro
 

Yesterday (14 Jun), on the afternoon, there was a tail strike from a Monarch A321. You could see some sparks coming out of his back end, which led to the intervention of the fire crew (although nothing more happened). Passengers came out ok. The Co-pilot was obviously upset, for he was the PF.
Everyone who flew A321 , knows how easy it is to do such a thing. Hope that everything goes well for the PF...

Do you think there might be an interview - tea, no biscuits, then?

Only tea but no biscuits...

Go immediately to the Fragrant Harbour thread on the CX A340-300 tailstrike that happened in January...then go and check the oleos.

Suppose your name says it all, unwise......

Ah, I see the previous post to which I was referring has been removed. Good.

Is that the back end of the F/O or the aircraft???

Yeah I know the F/O in question..... He was a good man!

He still is a good man.

Yeah that's what I meant

I thought so ;)

were you like brothers at flight school ?

Those Crazy Dutch, and their wacky humour :p :p

EGGW.

I heard some rumours that it was indeed out of the F/O:s behind that sparks were flying....

take off or landing?

It was on the landing phase.

is it that easy to strike a 321 in landing? I thought it was the TO that was critical...

probably both hu?

Unfortunately this can be done very easily on the A321 especially on landing. The autothrust computers are not always aggressive enough and allow the speed to decay. This results in high sink rates close to the ground sometimes causing a bounce and its usually on the second touchdown that can cause a strike.

MF

thanx for the info man...:ok:

Monarch was the last UK airline to have a clean sheet until yesterday, all other UK operators of 321's have had tailstrikes.
And as usual with 321 tailstrikes low houred F/O handling, see AAIB bulletins for details.

EGGW

Not the crime of the century. I hope the individual is not hung out to twist in the wind here.

An internal investigation and a bit of re-training if necessary.

It has happened to some very experienced pilots over the years.