Boeing 757 N553UA

Summary

On 30 July 2014 at about 05:40 local time, a Boeing 757 registered N553UA, operated by United Airlines, was involved in an accident near San Diego, California, United States. 174 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

30 July 2014 at 05:40

Classification

Accident

Location

San Diego, California, United States

Nearest airport

San Diego Intl (SAN)

Coordinates

32.7331, -117.1881

Aircraft

Boeing 757

Registration

N553UA

Category

Airplane

Year built

1992

Engines

2

Operator

United Airlines

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Houston → San Diego

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

DCA14LA137

Nobody was injured.

the first officer's failure to maintain the correct airspeed and pitch attitude during landing that resulted in a tailstrike.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

On July 29, 2014, about 2240 pacific daylight time, United Airlines flight 345, a Boeing 757-222, N553UA, experienced a tailstrike while landing at the San Diego International Airport (SAN), San Diego, California. There were no injuries to the 174 persons onboard. The airplane sustained substantial damage. The flight was operating under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 as a regularly scheduled passenger flight from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, Texas, to SAN. According to the operator, the first officer (FO) was the pilot flying and the captain was the pilot monitoring. The accident flight was the second flight of the day for both crew members. The climb, cruise, and descent portions of the flight were uneventful. The airplane was configured for a flaps 30 landing with the autopilot off for the visual approach to runway 27. The target airspeed for the landing was 130 knots, 5 knots above VREF. An airplane performance study was completed based on the FDR data from the flight. The study showed the wind was constant during the final descent to the runway with about a 4-knot headwind component. At about 50 feet radio altitude, the FO began to gradually pull back on the column until the elevators deflected 12 degrees airplane nose up at touchdown. Touchdown occurred with a sink rate near 0, a pitch attitude of about 6 degrees and an airspeed of 120 knots (5 knots below VREF). After touchdown, thrust was commanded to idle and the speedbrakes were deployed. The FO then began to gradually release column backpressure; however, pitch attitude continued to increase towards the gear-struts-compressed tail strike pitch attitude. The airplane's pitch attitude eventually exceeded the gear struts compressed tail strike attitude of 10.5 degrees. The FO commanded reverse thrust as the tail strike occurred and then increased to maximum reverse thrust after derotation had occurred. Published Flight Operations Technical Bulletins issued by the manufacturer in 1988 and 1990 instructed pilots to immediately lower the nose after touchdown (i.e. apply forward pressure) and warned pilots that bleeding off airspeed below VREF prior to touchdown will increase body attitude and thereby increase the likelihood of a tail strike. In this accident, touchdown occurred about 5 knots below VREF and the nose-up elevator remained for nearly 3.5 seconds, causing the aft fuselage to contact the runway. Inspection of the airplane revealed substantial abrasion damage to two aft, lower skin panels spanning an area about 4 feet long by 1.5 feet wide. In addition, the forward and aft lower chords on the aft pressure bulkhead (APB) were deformed and the lower APB web was buckled.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.