A Golden Myanmar Airlines Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212A, registration XY-AJM performing flight Y5-506 from Mandalay to Yangon (Myanmar) with 72 passengers and 5 crew, landed on Yangon's runway 21 at 16:37L (10:07Z) when both nose wheels separated from the strut upon touchdown. The aircraft came to a stop about 2100 meters/6900 feet down the runway resting on the nose gear strut and the main wheels. There were no injuries.
Myanmar's DCA (Directorate of Civil Aviation) reported the landing gear failed while landing in Yangon at 16:37L, the runway needed to be closed for a couple of hours. A heavy downpour took place at the time of landing.
The airport was able to re-open about 2 hours after landing.
On Aug 14th 2020 Myanmar's AAIB released their final report concluding the probable causes of the occurrence were:
- When the aircraft was on short finals, the power setting was inappropriate and the approach speed exceeded the stabilized approach speed criteria.
- The PIC decided to continue with the landing despite the destabilized approach and being advised to conduct a go-around by the Co-pilot.
- Due to insufficient flare, the nose gear of the aircraft contacted the runway first instead of the main gears in a normal landing. The excessive load on the nose gear as a result of the aircraft's abnormal landing attitude resulted in the nose gear collapsing.
The AAIB summarized the sequence of events:
They received the aerodrome information from Yangon Control Tower, "Heavy rain on the runway, visibility less than 1.2 nm". Thereafter the PIC took the control of the aircraft from the Co-pilot.
Because of heavy rain, the aerodrome operations were suspended. Consequently, the aircraft made the holding over HGUVOR at attitude 10000ft for about 25 min as per ATC's instruction.
After about 25 min holding, the visibility over the Yangon International Airport improved and aircraft were permitted to land. The incident aircraft made a descent to 3000ft and cleared for ILS approach to Runway 21.
The ATC instructed to the aircraft to report back when the approach lights were insight. When the aircraft was about 3.5nm from the runway, the approach lights were visible and the flight crew reported to the ATC that the approach lights were insight.
When the aircraft was about 1.5 nm from the runway, the rain intensity increased. The Co-pilot asked the PIC whether to go around or stabilized. The PIC replied that the runway was insight, so he continued to land the aircraft.
The aircraft landed with a nose down attitude on the runway 21. It bounced
four times forward and came to stop about 7000 ft from the threshold of runway 21. The aircraft encountered a nose gear axle rupture and the right nose wheel broke off.
The captain (57, ATPL, 19,929 hours total, 4,635 hours on type) initally was pilot monitoring but assumed the role as pilot flying for the landing, the first officer (42, ATPL, 6,219 hours total, 2,327 hours on type) was pilot flying and assumed the role as pilot monitoring during the landing.
The AAIB analysed that the entire descent and approach was flown on autopilot, the autopilot was disengaged at 120 feet AGL, gear was down, flaps at position 33 degrees, 129 KIAS (Vapp+13), 2.91 degrees nose down, winds from 271 degrees at 17 knots. Over the next 15 seconds the winds decreased to 12 knots, the IAS varied between 125 and 129 KIAS, the rate of descent decreased from 600 to 130 fpm. After the aircraft descended through 15 feet AGL two nose down inputs setting the nose to 1.8 degrees nose down and control inputs to decrab were recorded, the rate of descent increased.
The aircraft touched down at 1.58 degrees nose down at +1.833G, bounced three times. The AAIB stated: "In the period between the autopilot disengagement and until the aircraft came to a complete stop on the runway, no TAWS windshear caution and sink rate warning was recorded. The last valid data was recorded at 16:37:01 where the groundspeed was 0kt at GPS coordinates of N16.907425 E96.133296, consistent with final position of the aircraft on Runway 21. "
The AAIB analysed the aircraft should have gone around and stated in the findings: "It was determined that the aircraft was not stabilized on approach to runway 21 of the Yangon International Airport. The flare was not initiated, in addition, and before touchdown, a nose down order was applied on the control column. The aircraft bounced 4 times along the runway during 7 seconds. During the successive bounces, nose down effort was maintained. "