Boeing 757 N192AN accident near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Probable cause

The captain's improper control of the airplane during the landing flare.

NTSB analysis

On July 31, 2018, about 1315 eastern daylight time, American Airlines flight 89, a Boeing 757-223, N192AN, experienced a hard landing at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There were no injuries to the 181 passengers and crew onboard. The airplane was substantially damaged. The regularly scheduled international passenger flight was operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 from Shannon International Airport (SNN), Shannon, Ireland, to PHL.

The captain was the pilot flying and the first officer was the pilot monitoring. The flight crew stated that the ILS 09R approach was normal and the airplane landed in the touchdown zone. The captain stated that as the airplane touched down the nose pitched up abruptly when the spoilers auto-deployed but that he quickly countered the pitch up and flew the nose back on to the runway. As the flight was taxiing to the gate a flight attendant called on the interphone to inform the crew that they had heard an unusual noise during landing.

At the time of landing, the winds were reported to be from 130 degrees at 5 knots, with no gusts.

Postflight examination of the airplane found that the aft pressure bulkhead was buckled. The skin was worn through around Station (STA) 1720 to the pressure bulkhead, and the skin was wrinkled from STA 1701 to STA 1743 and Stringer 23L to 23R.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for DCA18CA266 for the full record.