Boeing 737-800 N734MA

Summary

On 20 November 2005 at about 03:18 local time, a Boeing 737-800 registered N734MA, operated by Miami Air International, was involved in an accident near State College, Pennsylvania, United States. 127 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

20 November 2005 at 03:18

Classification

Accident

Location

State College, Pennsylvania, United States

Nearest airport

University Park Airport (UNV)

Coordinates

40.8492, -77.8486

Aircraft

Boeing 737-800

Registration

N734MA

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Miami Air International

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Lansing → State College

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

NYC06LA033

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's improper touchdown and recovery from a bounced landing. Factors to the accident were the operator's failure to provide sufficient information on the use of autothrottles and bounced landing recovery techniques, along with the Federal Aviation Administration's failure to require the inclusion of mixed-mode flight control guidance and bounced landing recovery techniques in operator pilot training programs and flight manuals.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

During the approach, the captain had disconnected the autopilot, but had left the autothrottles engaged in what is known as "mixed-mode" method of flight control in which control of the flight path is mixed between manual and automatic means. During this time, the autothrottle began to track an airspeed which had been previously selected in the mode control panel speed window. The captain disconnected the autothrottles, but did not retard the throttles to idle. Therefore, automatic speedbrake deployment did not take place during the first touchdown. During the resultant bounce, the captain then retarded the thrust levers to idle, the speedbrakes deployed, there was a loss of lift and nose up pitching moment, and a tailstrike resulted. The airplane manufacturer recommended autothrottle use only when the autopilot was engaged. They also advised if the airplane bounced while landing, the pilot should hold or re-establish a normal landing attitude and add thrust as necessary to control the rate of descent, and that thrust need not be added for a "shallow skip or bounce," however, if a "high, hard bounce" occurred, the pilot should initiate a go-around. Information concerning the dangers of mixed-mode operations and bounced landing recovery was available to the operator and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); however there were no prohibition on mixed-mode operations, nor were bounced landing recovery guidance required to be listed in any of the operator's FAA approved manuals. Two months prior to the accident, the Safety Board issued a recommendation to the FAA; to require air carriers to incorporate bounced landing recovery techniques in their flight manuals and to teach these techniques during training. As a result the FAA issued a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO), which "recommended" each airline, include bounced landing recovery techniques in their manuals and training; however since the SAFO was not mandatory, the Safety Board requested the FAA survey air carriers to establish how many had adopted the SAFO. The Safety Board advised the FAA that until the results of the SAFO were known, the Safety Board's recommendation would remain classified; Open Acceptable Response.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.