Lufthansa Airbus landed 18.8 metres short of Munich runway

A Lufthansa Airbus touched down 18.8 metres before the threshold of a runway at Munich Airport in August, damaging three lights and seven tyres, according to an interim report by the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation. The agency classified the event as a serious incident, BR reported. No one was injured.

The report does not identify a specific cause. The investigation is ongoing, with a final report expected next year.

The aircraft, which had arrived from San Francisco on 17 August, was carrying 352 passengers and 24 crew members. Thunderstorms and rain made conditions difficult, and the crew said visibility deteriorated sharply on final approach. The German Weather Service recorded visibility of 800 metres at the runway; the crew estimated it was no more than 500 metres. The runway’s approach and landing lights were difficult to see.

Because the runway’s conventional Instrument Landing System was unavailable, the crew chose an RNP approach, which uses GPS data processed by an onboard computer. Flight recorder data showed the aircraft increasingly deviated below its calculated flight path. At about 30 feet, or nine metres, above the ground, the captain noticed the aircraft was too low. It touched down two seconds later, before the runway threshold.

The crew learned after landing that threshold lights had been damaged. One of the pilots later spotted damage to the main landing gear tyres while the aircraft was parked and reported it.

Two days earlier, a Vietnam Airlines aircraft had narrowly avoided an accident on the same runway after accelerating too slowly during take-off. It lifted off just in time and returned to Munich about two hours later, with smoke visible near the landing gear and tyres burst. Passengers and crew were unharmed. The cause remains unclear, and the BFU is also investigating that incident.