2014 B738 Turbulence hard landing Azores Portugal
The B737-800 was damaged in a hard landing after an approach conducted during the breaking-dawn with a cloudy sky, good visibility below 800 feet, recent light rain and variable gusting winds predicting moderate to severe turbulence.
The Captain (PF) elected to disconnect the autopilot but retain autothrust at about 1400 ft. due to the very strong winds and turbulence, and to maintain a profile above the normal glideslope. The subsequent approach breached stabilised approach criteria with a V/S in excess of 1000 fpm at low altitude. The runway was sighted at about 800ft and during the landing, impacts in excess of 3.5g occurred.
The use of PicMA in this case would probably not have significantly changed the outcome, as the main problem encountered was turbulence with good visibility below the cloud. However the following aspects might have been affected.
1) The crew would have probably discussed in more detail the recommended procedure for an approach in turbulence, including the use of autothrust without autopilot which is not recommended, as well as the wisdom of flying above the glideslope.
2) The Captain would have had more opportunity to evaluate the changing wind conditions if he had not been engaged in manually flying the aircraft.
3) The F/O may have been more focussed on making instrument call-outs which were omitted.
However, it is likely that the Captain would have taken control significantly above DH/MDA in any event, and the remaining factors in the hard landing would have been unaffected.
