AVIATION/ PORTUGAL REPORTS ON SATA FL129

Portugals Gabinete de Provencao e Investigacao de Acidentes com Aeronaves (GPIAA) has released its Final Report into an incident involving a SATA INTERNACIONAL A320 on August 4, 2009. On that date, Flight 129 was on Domestic Service from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada, Portugal, when it experienced a very hard landing, 4.86G, on Ponta Delgada's runway 30. The aircraft the bounced about 12 feet in the air and then touched down hard a 2nd time. No one onboard was injured. Following the flight, the flight crew and ground staff visually inspected the aircraft, and cleared the aircraft for service, without reporting in full what had taken place. The A320 in question, registration CS-TKO pictured above, flew 7 more flight segments until it was grounded by the carrier on August 6 after press inquiries. Substantial damage was then found  to the landing gear, one wing and several rivets were found separated from the airframe. The crew was then suspended. The carrier then issued a press release saying that CS-TKO would be out of service until sometime in September due to a hard landing on August 6 in Lisbon. The GPIAA was not notified until August 17 by the Captain of the incident, which was confirmed by the ground staff, and did not decided to investigate the incident until September 9. Shortly thereafter, SATA finally confirmed that the incident took place on August 4. In their Final Report, the GPIAA determined that the probable cause of this accident was "a hard landing, of significant vertical acceleration (4.86g), due to aircraft loss of lift caused by Ground Spoilers extension in flight, during a bounce of great amplitude (12ft AGL)". The landing is displayed in a printout from the FDR, as shown above. Secondary factors detail the Pilot Errors made during the landing and noting that the crew continued with the landing, instead of performing a go-around. Weather was not a factor.The Report does not discuss the issues surrounding the date of incident, the continued flying of the airliner, or the failure to immediately report a serious incident. The full Report, including a detailed look at events as they unfolded and actions taken by the crew, can be found on the GPIAA website.