Risk Analysis of Human Factors in Aircraft Tail Strike During Landing: A Study Based on QAR Data

Abstract

Aircraft tail strike is an unsafe event that usually occurs during takeoff, landing, and go-around. The majority of related studies only focus on incident investigation reports for analyzing causation, while few examine the risk of human factors in combination with QAR data. The purpose of this study is to investigate the risk of human factors in landing tail-strike. Based on 39 incident investigation reports and expert evaluations, the most influential factor in tail strikes during landing was determined. The QAR data of 291,000 flight sectors of an airline was then used to extract and analyze the samples related to influential factors. The results showed that improper pitch attitude always leads to tail strikes during landing. The large pitch angle in landing was classified into three types including continuously incremental pitch angle value, consistently high pitch angle value, and unstable pitch angle value. Roughly manipulating the stick before touchdown and continuously over-manipulating the stick after grounding contributes to the increased pitch angle after grounding, while the causes of bounced landing are belatedly setting the spoiler and intensely operating the stick before touchdown. These findings are expected to help airlines to identify and reduce the human risk from aircraft tail strikes and improve the efficiency of flight training.