near crash at Itami Japan

[Marco]

Hi,

today around 10:30hrs a Japan Air Lines MD81 (JA8260) nearly crashed during landing (eyewitnessed myself).

Only a few seconds before landing the aircraft starting to bank sharply to the left. Not seen, but the aircraft hitted the runway with its left wingtip. The airfield was closed for about 45 mins for all traffic. Traffic up to the A320 / 737-800 then started again.

Once at the gate the aircraft got eximanated by the ground crew when they found the damage on the wingtip. Stairs and high officials then arrived at the aircraft to take pics of the wingtip. In the meanwhile airport authorities were examinating the runway where they found a damaged runway. It took about 45 mins after reopening of the 34R to fix the damage on the 34L. Once repaired they found another damaged spot on the runway (at least it looked like), but this was not serious enough to close the runway again. During the second inspection 3 push backs were performed at the same time (ANA 767-300 and 777-300 + JAL 777-200) which were loaded and had to wait for 1.5hrs before they could leave the airport.

Weather conditions were strong crosswinds over the runway. So it might have been a windshere or suddenly no wind at all. The plane got towed away when inspections to the aircraft were finished. Most likely a DBR due to delivery of new 737-800`s and new JAL hangars on the airfield???

Rgds from Itami.

[Marco]

here some shots, not really sharp. No shots of the actual runway hit, but only the recovery shots. On the right wing the light is still present, on the left wing it is not anymore. Full report on http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=59647

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[Edit: photos to links]