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Kent Babin
@kentb
Thoughts on this one @aviationdoctor.eth? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/17/at-least-eight-injured-as-delta-plane-flips-upon-arrival-in-toronto-airport
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
I’m bit rusty on regulations but I don’t think it’s supposed to do that
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
Joke aside, the Flight Radar 24 data seems to show a normal approach but in windy conditions (28–35 kt as per METAR) and possibly gusty on landing, which could lead to a wingtip touching the ground and a subsequent flip. Speculating of course but that would explain one wing being sheared off
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
Update: I've now seen the video of the landing taken from a security camera. The aircraft didn't flare / pitch up and just kept descending with a level attitude into the ground at an excessive vertical speed. It was also not banking, so it looks like we can rule out a wingtip touching the ground first. So, it was presumably a very hard landing that caused gear collapse and wing separation on one side, and then rolling over due to the asymmetry of the other wing still being attached and generating lift. My bet is on sudden windshear just before the flare causing the aircraft to slam into the ground. The weather looked terrible in YYZ. Windshear at landing is really the one edge case that we can't do much about safety-wise. As much as we have windshear detectors on the ground and on the aircraft, if it happens at that exact sweet spot just before the flare, there isn't enough time to spool up the engines and go around. At least in those rare occasions, the height is so little that the accident is survivable
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Kent Babin
@kentb
Thanks for this! I'm going to read up on windshear. I remember a particularly hard landing in Kyiv nearly 20 years ago. Felt like we were dropped onto the runway. Airbus A320, iirc. One of those landings that actually moved things in the overhead compartments.
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
There’s this somewhat enduring urban legend in aviation that Soviet pilots would routinely deploy thrust reversers just before touchdown (instead of after). That leads to shorter stopping distances but also harder, Navy-like landings. Maybe that’s what you experienced, though not on an A320 then (main gear must be compressed / on the ground for the reverser to activate)
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