Birds cause Ryanair emergency landing

S. King

Nov 11th 2008, 21:22

@ Tonio Mallia

I also agree, similar to the BA crash last January. But more importantly, everyone was safe

S. King

Nov 11th 2008, 21:20

@ Tonio Mallia,

Firstly, let me apologise about my stupid humour (you get what you pay for), although my own experiences with budget airlines are not great.

The rest of what I said does make sense. Obviously the plane glided in, because the engine(s) would have had their fuel cut-off - which is the norm when an engine is blowing from a possible bird strike.
I was simply saying that it must have been a heavy touchdown to cause the collapse of the left landing gear.
The landing gear would have been down before the bird strike, so my assumption was that it came down too heavily on that particular gear, to cause the collapse.

Naturally, I agree the pilots keep the plane in the air as longer as possible, by lifting the nose. And as you say, without the appropriate power, there would be a lack of lift, causing either a premature crash landing, or a very heavy landing within the airport itself.

Although it said possibly several birds were hit, I only believe one engine was damaged, which is the possible cause of a heavy uneven landing.

Thats my theory. I'm sure we will find out soon.

Tonio Mallia

Nov 11th 2008, 12:23

@S King

Your comments about low cost airlines do not make sense as you are inferring that Ryan Air pilots are less efficient than those of other airlines which is not the case.

Your other comment that they could have just glided in to land since it was close to the airport also does not make sense as this is apparently what they did!

Upon losing power the pilots would have to pull up the aircrafts nose to keep it in the air as long as possible to make it to the runway. This however results in loss of speed which will consequently result in loss of lift and faster than normal descent speed and an abnormal impact speed with the runway.

Keep in mind that the plane was on final approach and the power loss occured very close to the ground.

Looks very similar to the BA incident at Heathrow and if so the pilots deserve a round of applause

R. Cassar

Nov 11th 2008, 00:18

Too early to conclude what caused the left main gear to collapse.
It could be a sudden loss of power or series of surges on one or both engines brought about multiple bird ingestion during the final phase of the landing; ie the few seconds just before flaring...
hence a possible heavy landing.
But after all this is just a speculation

S. King

Nov 10th 2008, 23:50

@ I.Scicluna
I read on a different website, that it had a very heavy landing (as stated, an emergency landing).
What probably caused it, was that it touched-down unevenly, and with a too severe rate of descent. Although, the bird strikes must have happened very close to (if not at) the airport, so I too find it bizarre that such a heavy landing occured, when the plane could have just glided in to land.

Oh well, with budget airlines, you get what you pay for (or not what you pay for!)
(I mean with regards to the flight crew, not the bird strikes which can happen anytime)

Jean-Pierre Tabone Adami

Nov 10th 2008, 20:51

Both engines out due to bird intake. Consequent higher than usual rate of descent during landing causes excess stress on landing gear causing it to fail. Power failure during last phases of landing caused similar damage recently to a BA B777 in Heathrow.

Charles Sammut

Nov 10th 2008, 19:13

@ I Scicluna
You have to try very hard to land a modern airliner wheels up. There are plenty of warning systems to prevent that.

The aircraft was on short final at the time of the multiple bird strike. Both engines ingested birds and when the captain initiated a go-around, the engines spooled up, but slowly. When take-off, go-around switch was selected the engines caught fire.

Result: low power and landing flaps. The aircraft was then dived onto the runway and due to the heavy touchdown, the left undercarriage collapsed.

What I cannot understand is why attempt a go-around at that stage after a multiple bird strike.

Martin Büttner

Nov 10th 2008, 19:04

Something like this can't happen in Malta, because the Maltese hunters make sure that no birds survive which could be of danger to planes landing or taking off.

@ I.Scicluna:
After multiple collisions with birds and the loss of both engines the landing speed was probably much higher than it should be. So the impact on the ground was harder and the weakest point broke, which is certainly the undercarriage.
Another reason could be the loss of pneumatic and/or hydraulic pressure. Without pressure the undercarriage is not or only partly controllable and it might not hold the lock anymore.

Charles Polidano

Nov 10th 2008, 18:07

The left main gear isn't retracted but appears to have been forced up through the wing (note the torn panel on the wing inboard of the engine). The word on some aviation forums is that the aircraft lost power in both engines as a result of the bird-strikes and suffered a hard landing as a result. If this was the situation, all credit goes to the Ryanair pilots for bringing the plane down in one piece because this episode could very easily have ended in tragedy.

I.Scicluna

Nov 10th 2008, 16:21

Strange photo.

What's a folded undercarriage's got to do with a bird-strike? I'm no aviation expert but if the aircraft was landing after the bird-strike, one of the checks that the Flight-deck goes through is to check that the undercarriage IS down!