| A Maldivian Air Taxi de Havilland DHC 6-200 Twin Otter on floats, registration 8Q-MAT performing a flight from Lily Beach resort to Male (Maldives) with 9 passengers and 3 crew, was landing at Male's Seaplane Terminal at 12:08L (07:08Z), however the right hand wing became submerged after touch down. After coming to a stop the aircraft remained afloat with the right hand wing submerged. The passengers and crew were rescued without any injuries, the aircraft received substantial damage. Maldives' Civil Aviation Authority rated the occurrence an accident and initiated an investigation. The airline reported that the aircraft was arriving from Lily Beach Resort, landed in heavy rain and suffered an incident with one wing hitting the water. All passengers were evacuated within 10 minutes without injuries and are already on their onward journeys without missing their connections. The aircraft remained afloat and upright, the damage appears to be limited to one of the floats that detached from the aircraft causing the wing to dip into the water. In May 2020 the final report dated Feb 24th 2015 surfaced concluding the probable causes of the accident were: - Altitude judgement in visual approach with no flare at touch down. - Excessive wind corrections applied to the prevailing condition. - Windshield wipers were not selected and applied. - The incorrect landing procedure and hard landing caused the float to dig in to the water which subsequently caused a bounce. After the bounce the PIC was unable to make a correction causing a hard impact and float detaching. The CAA reported the first officer (30, CPL, 1063 hours total, 561 hours on type) was pilot flying, the captain (32, ATPL, 4,150 hours total, 1,650 hours on type) was pilot monitoring. The CAA described the sequence of events: 8Q-MAT was on final approach to MLE, the sky was overcast and visibility was at 6km and there was slight drizzle over the field. Before the aircraft touched down on water the pilot flying applied left rudder and right aileron to correct for the prevailing crosswind. On touchdown the right float touched down first and the float dug into the water and then the aircraft bounced. The captain took over the controls and tried to apply power. The aircraft being airborne appeared to roll slightly more right sideways and landed down very hard with a turn to the right attitude. On impact the right float detached and the right wing slid into water. The detached float got stuck between the right wing and the fuselage preventing further sliding of the wing into water and the aircraft drifted into the shallows. As the aircraft came to a halt evacuation procedures were followed with the assistance of Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) and MAT Rescue Boats. All 09 passengers and 03 crew were evacuated safely without any injuries. |