Accident Airbus A320-211 JA8384,

ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 320992

Date:	Sunday 5 February 2012
Time:	09:03
Type:	Airbus A320-211
Owner/operator:	All Nippon Airways - ANA
Registration:	JA8384
MSN:	151
Year of manufacture:	1990
Total airframe hrs:	43423 hours
Engine model:	CFMI CFM56-5A1
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 166
Aircraft damage:	Substantial
Category:	Accident
Location:	Sendai Airport (SDJ) - Japan
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Osaka-Itami Airport (ITM/RJOO)
Destination airport:	Sendai Airport (SDJ/RJSS)
Investigating agency:	JTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
An Airbus A320-211 sustained substantial damage in a tail strike accident at Sendai Airport (SDJ/RJSS), Japan. ANA Flight NH731, had departed Osaka-Itami International Airport (ITM/RJOO) on a domestic service to Sendai. The captain was Pilot Flying.
The en route part of the flight was uneventful and the weather at Sendai was fine. At 09:00 the flight was cleared to land on runway 27. Wind was reported from 160 degrees at 2 knots.
At 09:03:04 the aircraft passed the runway threshold at a height of 50 feet and the captain felt the airplane floated. The right hand main landing gear touched down softly at 09:03:14. Four seconds later the captain pulled the reverse levers. Almost at the same time, he felt some vibrations from the airframe like stall buffeting and thought that it was not a normal landing. Determining that the aircraft was still in the air, the captain decided to go around, shifting the thrust levers to TO/GA positions. The nose was raised sharply, reaching +12.7 degrees. The tail struck the runway, causing a 40 cm * 3 m gash and a distorted rear bulkhead. The airplane circled and landed safely at 09:27. There were no injuries among the 166 passengers and crew.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "In this accident, it is highly probable that when the Aircraft rejected the landing after touching Runway 27, its nose was raised sharply, causing the lower part of the rear fuselage to contact with the runway and be damaged.
It is highly probable that the substantial pitch-up moment caused the quick Aircraft nose-up with the following reasons: The captain decided to reject the landing under the circumstance where he could not recognize the touchdown of main landing gears due to the soft landing;
Balanced pitching moment was disrupted by the captains nose-up elevator input as his go-around was initiated from the full-aft sidestick position."

Accident investigation: