There are a lot of aircraft landing videos out there that make for interesting viewing, but this has to be one of the wildest that I’ve ever seen…
In this post:
TAP Air Portugal Airbus A321 has shocking landing in Madeira
This incident happened today (Tuesday, March 26, 2024), and involves a four-year-old TAP Air Portugal Airbus A321neo with the registration code CS-TJQ. The aircraft was operating a short 36-mile repositioning flight within Portugal, from Porto Santo (PXO) to Madeira (FNC). The flight took well under 15 minutes, and only had a crew onboard, without passengers.
Madeira is known for being a challenging airport to land at, due to winds frequently being strong (and they’ve been especially strong in recent days). It’s also a popular airport with plane spotters, given that there are frequently some “interesting” landings.
Well, this particular flight had what might just be the most bizarre landing ever captured on video at the airport. Give it a watch for yourself below.
There seem to be two major factors at play:
- It’s obviously very windy during the approach, as you can see the number of corrections the pilots are making as the plane approaches the runway
- The plane is also probably at its lightest possible weight, given that there are no passengers or bags onboard, which can impact flying performance
As you’ll see in the video, the plane basically just floats above the ground, and refuses to land. That’s despite the plane being at a pretty steep nose down angle. Eventually — just short of the halfway point of the runway — the plane touches down, with the nose gear touching down first (by a long shot).
Not surprisingly, the plane had no issues coming to a stop once it did touch down, though I imagine a gear inspection will need to be carried out before this plane can reenter service.
What were the TAP Air Portugal pilots thinking?
This is beyond my area of expertise, so I’m curious if any commercial pilots can fill us in on what exactly was going on here. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there are any sort of situations (aside from an emergency) where operating procedures allow for touching down with the nose gear first.
In this case, it’s not like there was a sudden downdraft, and the pilots weren’t expecting the nose wheel would hit first. Rather, they had the plane’s nose angled down the entire way down the runway, so surely they knew this was how it was going to play out.
Did the pilots really intentionally touch down this way, rather than performing a go around? And if so, was it just because they were impatient, or is there any reasonable explanation for something like this (other than blaming it on DEI)?
Bottom line
A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A321neo had quite a memorable landing in Madeira today, as the jet touched down with its nose gear first. What makes this so strange is that the plane was angled nose down the entire way down the runway, so presumably the pilots knew it was going to happen, and were fine with it.
Obviously the conditions here were challenging — you had strong winds combined with a very light aircraft — but still, that doesn’t explain this kind of a landing.
What do you make of this TAP Air Portugal A321neo landing?
Looks to me like the performance was run incorrectly. The auto thrust is clearly operating at too high of an N1. Leading to a more nose down pitch attitude to maintain the descent rate required.
"Wind shear! Wind shear! Wind shear!"
They say they are the best pilots on planet Earth to make landing apparatus, without a doubt the best pilots are the Scandinavians in everything
I was there and saw everything.
It was the first landing on that day after several divertions.
Great pilot!
uh...no. They should have gone around. Bad pilot
Main gear are designed for impacts like that, nose gear are not. That gear needs a log book entry, an engineers inspection and sign off before its next flight. This is for the benefit of every subsequent pilot that flies this aircraft after this rodeo clown!!!
From the looks of the sock, it was well over at 20 kt. headwind.
I wonder whether the ground effect could cause more difficulties in a light-weight configuration. Could maybe explain the "resistance" to landing.
There's less total ground effect when there is less total lift being produced. Which is the case for a lighter aircraft.
Tim Dunnnnnn would know what to do.
Madeira airport was the sc NE of a plane TAP crash 707 in November 1976. My aunt and uncle perished. Dangerous airport.
I think it was a B727-200. At that time SOP was a B727-100 due to rwy length. After that, a SATA SE210 Caravelle did a CFIT into the ocean during the approach
The Capt should be fired.
This is how they land planes in cartoons.
It's called "wheel barrow-ing" and it is indeed dangerous. Clearly the PIC completely blew the approach - they were too high, too fast, and too clueless to recognize that things had gone way too far to salvage it. You can see there was some additional challenge thrown in by a late wind burst, causing them to balloon when almost ready to touch down and they were already pointed way too nose-down. A go-around would have...
It's called "wheel barrow-ing" and it is indeed dangerous. Clearly the PIC completely blew the approach - they were too high, too fast, and too clueless to recognize that things had gone way too far to salvage it. You can see there was some additional challenge thrown in by a late wind burst, causing them to balloon when almost ready to touch down and they were already pointed way too nose-down. A go-around would have been called for (at least a couple times).
Horrible mis-handing of the airplane. Nobody was actually piloting this jet, those on the flight deck were just along for the ride. They were very fortunate things didn't turn out much, much worse. Sometimes you get lucky (for a while...keep mishandling aircraft like that, and eventually your luck will definitely run out).
Bet they had to change underwear after disembarking.
Excessive speed. Way too fast. A normal approach speed for that weight would have looked like any other.
It's hard to judge speed from the video. Long-distance lenses always make it look faster or slower than it actually is.
It's not a matter of judging speed by how fast it looks like it's moving, but rather by its attitude and behavior. The only way for a plane to fly like this is if you're coming in with too much energy (i.e. high and/or fast.) If the jet is refusing to settle even with the nose pointed down, then you're definitely flying too fast and should go around.
You can judge the speed easily by the descent rate and the pitch angle. low pitch angle means too fast.
I see the problem in that this isn’t a Delta Airlines plane. They would never land a plane like this. Never.
Just ask Tim Dunn.
Well, to be fair, they probably wouldn't. This is some seriously poor airmanship.
Commercial landings tend to be too energetic by my standards as a pilot. But touching nose wheel first is horrible. The typical result would be for the plane to porpoise and bounce into the air. The issue her is the pilot was powered up, probably because they were used to seeing a particular ground speed while landing but since the headwind was so strong, he still had a lot of power in the engines to...
Commercial landings tend to be too energetic by my standards as a pilot. But touching nose wheel first is horrible. The typical result would be for the plane to porpoise and bounce into the air. The issue her is the pilot was powered up, probably because they were used to seeing a particular ground speed while landing but since the headwind was so strong, he still had a lot of power in the engines to create the picture they were used to seeing. That’s why the plane wouldn’t land. That’s why you see the down nose angle because he’s way above actual landing speed relative to the ground.
You don't know what you're talking about. Most likely the auto-thrust was on, and Groundspeed Mini was doing its thing. (google it)
That's one scary airport. Last time we were there it was more exciting than I REALLY WANTED. Next time a boat.
Given it was such a short hop, might they have had very little fuel on board?
Even lighter, and not easy to go round?
Perhaps more likely, they were late, and didn't want to inconvenience passengers on the next flight by taking 10 minutes to go round?
In this case, they did take (or at least: should have taken) enough fuel with them to divert, because of the weather earlier in the day (which was the reason they themselves diverted in the first place). And "we're late" should never be an excuse to take an unnecessary risk, which this clearly was.
No way that the nose gear is not damaged (not just the gear but the bulkheads, etc. it attaches to).
I don't care how 'light' you are that was an unstable and ridiculous approach, the go-around should have been initiated way early on.
90% chance the pilots try to tell no one - yet the airplane should tattle on them (if it is the same monitoring we have in the States - I...
No way that the nose gear is not damaged (not just the gear but the bulkheads, etc. it attaches to).
I don't care how 'light' you are that was an unstable and ridiculous approach, the go-around should have been initiated way early on.
90% chance the pilots try to tell no one - yet the airplane should tattle on them (if it is the same monitoring we have in the States - I don't know that for sure)
With over 20,000 hours and more than 2,000 in the left seat of that type (319,320 and 321), I have never seen anyone land on the nose wheel like that. Ouch.
TAP= Take Another Plane
Get some help, you're in a big need. Doubt you will move above "Guest."
Excessive speed, a go around was defiantly called for. Lucky for them the nose gear didn't collapse.
One reason I will never move there; I heard how crazy landing airplanes are there.
Too bad not more people think like you. To much people there!
I audibly gasped when I saw the cover photo for this post, holy cow
The pilot should have gone around before. I don't know whether it is a stable app or not, but when a plane "refuses" to land, you should not push it, admit it, go around and tray again. A plane may refuse to land due to a positive wind gust that gives extra lift, it is not necessary an unstable approach.
True. It's not going to land until it's ready to land no matter how much you may wish differently.
Looks like ground effects.
It was actually a United 737 MAX dressed up as a BA A321.
Nobody is fooled.
You've been clearly fooled. Btw, it's not even a BA plane. Did you bother to read the article?
You, with some individuals I can count, stand alone here from others.
This was very clearly an unstablized approach. The correct action would be to initiate a go-around. Pile driving the nose gear into the ground is not an appropriate response.
Concur. No question.
I see systemic culture issues with the airline and manufacturer
Neither Boeing, nor United.
What will the chatterati on OMAAT come up with?
Don't worry, they've already came up with a conspiracy theories.
When I was a kid (in elementary school), my father would let me play on his Microsoft flight simulator. This is how I would do my landings lol.
It’s one of the “Landing Challenges” on the new MSFS. It’s a tough one, you hit some nasty wind shear just before touchdown
Sounds fun. :)
The pilots let one of the FAs have a go at landing?