26th of July 2017

With a crew of two and one passenger on board, a Raytheon Hawker 850XP took off from Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport on this day in 2016. Its destination lay ~500 km (~320 miles) to the southwest, the Mikonos Airport on the island of Mikonos.

The damaged wingtip (Source & © AAIASB)

After an uneventful flight, the crew contacted Mykonos Approach, stating they were descending to flight level 80 towards waypoint LETSO. ATC replied that they were number 2 for landing and had to report over LETSO. Additional descend and routing instructions were provided. The necessary checklists were completed and at 10.24 lt (local time) ATC cleared the aircraft to land at runway 16, giving the wind as 180º at 05 knots.

Subsequently, the Landing Checklist was completed, and shortly afterwards (400 feet from the runway) the pilot monitoring (the captain) called out "SPEED SPEED VERT." As the aircraft descended from 200 to 100 feet AGL the stick shaker activated, and immediately afterwards the stick pusher activated. The aircraft's speed at the time was close to 97 knots well below the landing speed (Vref) for the aircraft's landing weight, which was 121 knots.

The stall speed for the aircraft in full landing configuration at the current aircraft gross weight (~9150 kg /~20.200 lbs) was 95 knots. (the stick shaker warns of an impending stall, while the stick pusher lowers the nose of the aircraft to prevent a stall).

At a height of 30 feet, the captain called out twice for a Go-Around. This instruction was ignored by the co-pilot (pilot flying) who continued with the landing. During the landing the aircraft touched down left wing low, causing the left wing to strike the runway. Directly after landing the co-pilot remarked:

"what have I done my friend?", later adding: "Well, something happened. A sudden drift came from the right" The aircraft vacated the runway and taxied to its designated parking stand. Stick shaker and Stickpusher system

(Source & © AAIASB)

An inspection of the aircraft revealed damage to the;

• left wing tip

• Left wing trailing edge flap

• Left Aileron drive cover

• and the #1 main wheel tire (lefthand main landing gear outboard wheel)

The damaged left wing trailing edge flap (Source & © AAIASB)

The incident was investigated by the Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board of Greece. In their report (available for your information by clicking here) they gave the following route cause;

"The non-stabilized approach, from 2000 ft to touch down, regarding the final approach and landing speed, ranging from -6 to -31 kts lower than the appropriate recommended Approach speed of 131 kts and Vref of 121 kts and very close to the A/C Stalling speed of 97 kts"

Damaged Aileron drive cover (AAIASB). (Source & © AAIASB)

The following contributing factors were given in the AAIASB report;

• CRM during approach and landing between the Captain and First Officer was not effective.

• No standard call-outs regarding speed management. Only “GO AROUND” is heard on CVR.

• Lack of familiarity of the Flight Crew with the peculiarities in terms of approach and landing at MYKONOS airport may have contributed to raised anxiety, especially on Runway 16.