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| Date: | Tuesday 2 July 2013 |
| Time: | 07:45 |
| Type: |  Airbus A340-311 |
| Owner/operator: | SriLankan Airlines |
| Registration: | 4R-ADA |
| MSN: | 032 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1994 |
| Engine model: | CFMI CFM56-5C2 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 330 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor |
| Category: | Serious incident |
| Location: | Colombo-Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB/VCBI) -
 Sri Lanka
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Riyadh-King Khalid International Airport (RUH/OERK) |
| Colombo-Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB/VCBI) | |
| Investigating agency: | CAASL |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities |
SriLankan Airlines flight UL266, an Airbus A340-300, registration 4R-ADA departed Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. On approach the flight crew decided to conduct a practice auto landing on runway 22 and conducted the required briefing for an auto land which included task sharing, call outs and go-around strategy. The visibility conditions were good. UL266 then experienced a high sink rate during the flare, followed by a hard landing and a tail strike.
Probable Causes: It was evident that the crew did not anticipate a hard landing as they did not detect the speed variation, which occurred at 105ft RA height and reached its maximum value at the touch down point.
The subsequent correction from the system to regain the target speed was completely diminished (negated) as the design features are incapable of adjusting the speed when the RETARD mode is engaged at 35ft as it solely depend on the RA input. In addition the prevailing local weather conditions were such that the longitudinal wind inversion and the tail wind gradient was beyond the limitation of the design. This scenario resulted in a hard landing with high pitch angle and with high vertical acceleration. The tail strike may have resulted due to the hard landing or due to the involuntary control inputs at the time of hard landing and the subsequent control inputs given by PIC, which took the aircraft in to a higher pitch attitude when the oleos of the main wheels were compressed.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
CAASL
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 23-Jul-2013 13:01 | ryan | Added |
| 23-Jul-2013 17:03 | harro | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Location, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 21-Dec-2020 16:48 | harro | Updated [Time, Registration, Cn, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative, Accident report, ] |
| 26-Dec-2021 09:58 | Ron Averes | Updated [Operator, ] |
| 31-Dec-2021 14:59 | Prometheus | Updated [Operator, ] |
| 11-May-2024 06:22 | Prometheus | Updated [Damage, ] |
| 17-Mar-2025 07:34 | Prometheus | Updated [Time, Source, Narrative, Category, ] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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