An Airbus A321neo operated by Frontier Airlines suffered a left-engine failure last month caused by ingesting fragments of its nose wheel following an attempted landing in San Juan.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released on 21 May a preliminary report on the 15 April incident, which did not injure passengers or crew.
Operating Frontier flight 3506 from Orlando to Luis Munoz Marin International airport, the A321 sustained damage to its nose wheel and left Pratt & Whitney PW1100G turbofan during an attempted landing at 21:40 local time, the report says.
The first officer handled the descent with the captain monitoring, with a stable approach that ”required a slight lateral correction to maintain centreline” at about 150ft above ground, the NTSB says.
The first officer reduced thrust levers to idle, and the captain recalls that the landing flare became too high at about 15ft altitude.
The first officer “corrected with a shallow descent and then a gradual flare”.
The captain called for a go-around, recalling, “The aircraft was running out of flying speed quickly, as the throttles were retarded and the pitch attitude was increasing”. He assumed control of the aircraft moments before touching down.
With the A321 slightly nose-down and thrust in the take-off/go-around position, the aircraft made hard contact with the landing surface, according to the NTSB.
During the go-around, the pilots heard a “loud band coming from under the fuselage”. The first officer called out an engine failure and air traffic control (ATC) reported observing flames erupting from one of the aircraft’s engines.
Unsure about the extend of damage, the captain asked ATC to have the runway checked for debris. “Some metal and tire debris were found on the runway and reported to the flight crew,” the NTSB says.
The A321neo then made a low pass near the ATC tower to confirm that all three landing gear were down. Controllers reported the gear being intact, and the pilots executed a visual approach and landing during which the aircraft behaved normally.
A post-landing inspection revealed that the left wheel and tire on the jet’s nose gear had separated from the axle.
”Metal fragments from the wheel assembly appear to have been ingested by the number one engine, and damage was found on the engine’s inlet cowl liner, thrust reverser, fan blades and guide vanes,” the NTSB report says. “The left inboard trailing edge flaps were also damaged.”
