Volaris A21N hard landing and tailstike - Guadalajara, Mexico
Volaris A21N hard landing and tailstike - Guadalajara, Mexico
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/3560055
A Volaris Airbus A321-200N, registration XA-VSC performing flight Y4-488 from Tijuana to Guadalajara (Mexico), landed on Guadalajara's runway 11 at 11:52L (17:52Z) but touched down hard and suffered a tail strike. The aircraft rolled out without further incident. There were no injuries, the aircraft suffered substantial damage.
Mexico's DAAIA (Direccion de Analisis de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviacion) reported the aircraft XA-VSC suffered a hard landing at Guadalajara, but attributed the aircraft to Viva Aerobus instead of Volaris. The DAAIA quoted the captain of the flight stating: "We were on an ILS approach. The first officer was flying the aircraft, the approach was carried out in a normal way. On short final an instability started, the first officer decelerated the aircraft completely, the aircraft went down, I didn't have time to correct, a strong impact was felt. When we arrived at the apron, we were informed that a tail strike had occurred, a report was recorded in the logbook and the company and authorities were informed." The DAAIA have opened an investigation.
The aircraft is still on the ground in Guadalajara about 72 hours after landing.
Will this aircraft ever be considered safe to fly again?
Yes. This will take some time to repair and re-certify the aircraft (among pressure hull tests). Tailstrike damage is a fairly common type of repair, but this damage is quite extensive and will take some time.
The aircraft is brand new (1.3 years) so the chance of getting repaired is high.