Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl. Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Phoenix, Arizona 85034
Wednesday, June 2, 1999 20:26 MST

The airplane sustained substantial structural damage to the nose wheel well aft bulkhead during a hard landing. The en route flight from New York to Phoenix was uneventful. About 3 seconds before touchdown, at the termination of a visual approach, the airplane's pitch attitude increased to 5.8 degrees. The captain, who was the flying pilot, described the first touchdown as being 'firm,' and in the runway's touchdown zone, close to the centerline. There was a maintenance carry over (MCO) disabling the auto-spoiler deployment system, so the first officer manually deployed the spoilers upon touchdown. The captain stated he then applied forward pressure to the control yoke. The captain additionally reported that he 'felt a jolt' as the nose gear returned to the runway. After landing, the airplane taxied to the gate. It was subsequently examined and substantial damage was observed to the airplane's nose gear wheel well aft bulkhead, associated underlying structure, and skin panels. The digital flight data recorder was read out and it revealed that approximately 3 seconds prior to touchdown, the pitch attitude started increasing in response to nose up elevator inputs to a maximum pitch of about 5.8 degrees, and the airplane touched down (transitioned from air to ground) then became airborne again. The second air to ground transition occurred 3 seconds later and the elevator positions changed over the next second from plus 6 degrees to minus 16 degrees as the pitch attitude rapidly decreased to -0.7 degrees at a rate of 4 degrees per second. There was no evidence of any mechanical malfunctions during the landing event.

The pilot's excessive and rapid forward control column movement in response to a bounced landing, which resulted in the hard touchdown of the nose wheel.