Nose landing gear and tire broke off as Frontier Airlines flight attempted landing, NTSB preliminary report says
A nose landing gear wheel and tire broke off and hit an engine and wing during a Frontier Airlines attempted landing in Puerto Rico last month, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
On April 15, Frontier Flight 3506, an Airbus A321, was arriving from Orlando International Airport when its first landing attempt failed at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. According to the flight crew, the first officer was the pilot flying, and the captain was the pilot monitoring during the night flight. There were 228 passengers and seven crew members on board.
When the plane was about 15 feet above the ground, the captain called for a go-around, instructing the first officer to abort the landing. The captain believed the aircraft was 'running out of flying speed quickly' so he took over and accelerated to circle the airport just as the plane touched down, according to the NTSB report.
Data from the plane showed the wheels initially hit the ground at 2.2 times the force of gravity, greater than Frontier's 'hard landing' limit of 1.8 Gs.
During the go-around, the pilots 'heard a loud bang coming from under the fuselage' and the first officer said that an engine failure was displayed on the electronic centralized aircraft monitor display, according to the NTSB.
The captain asked for a sweep of the runway and metal and tire debris were found.
Metal from the damaged nose landing gear was sucked into the plane's left engine and hit parts of the wing, the NTSB found.
The plane flew near the air traffic control tower to check if all three landing gears were down, and a controller reported they all appeared to be intact. The plane then landed normally and the passengers safely evacuated by air stairs.
The preliminary NTSB report does not determine what caused the accident, which will be outlined in a final report that usually takes about a year.
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