Heavy landing query

howyanow

Hi all.

Not a regular poster but had question that ye guys may explain to me.

I was on a Veuling flight into Dublin Monday 25th at around 2pm.

We had a very heavy landing with what felt was a big hop as in airbound again momentarily which scared a lot of people myself included.I was shaken up for around an hour.

Flew Veuling before and found it a nice airline and comfortable planes so am not looking to be critical of them.

I cant help feeling the pilot made an error ,almost as if he was forcing the plane down rather than trying a go around.Id been on a flight with a go around a few years ago and although found it scary I admired the pilots skills and decision making to ensure our safety.

Is this type of landing something that would be investigated internally or am I overthinking completely and actually should be praising the pilot who possibly had v late wind change?

I know v little about avaiation so would be glad for any info and also apologies if thread is waste of time.

We mentioned hard landing to Veuling on flight review request emailed out to us but not sure they get noticed.

moonshy2022

Judging by your post you are a slightly nervous flyer so I’d suggest that yes you are over thinking it as a result.

If the landing was considered by the aircraft itself to be a heavy landing, it has a G meter, the aircraft will tell the pilots and the aircraft will be inspected by engineer's before it departs again. If it was an exceptionally hard landing the aircraft will be grounded and a deeper inspection will be conducted.

It probably was a slightly firmer than normal landing and the hop isn’t anything unusual. Depending on the winds at that moment will probably be a reason for the firmer than normal landing.

I’ve found that sitting in certain areas of an aircraft can give different feels to a landing. Towards the middle and rear it feels tougher, like sitting over the suspension on a bus/coach can be vomit inducing at times.

Don’t worry about it too much it’s normal.

howyanow

Many thanks for your reply and yes I am a nervous flyer.I was also sitting on one of the aisles at the wings so I understand it may have felt worse.On impact my phone flew out of my hand and went a few aisles up so this possibly added to the tension of the moment

Will be useful to know if it happens again,I appreciate your info.

silverwood

With the greatest of respect, you are overthinking this.

You admit yourself that you know very little about aviation. You are not in any position (nor have the facts) to decide whether the pilot made an error or whether he should have gone around or not.

I’d suggest you just forget about it and try not to let it affect any future flights that you may take.

smurfjed

What people tend to forget is that a certification landing is at 600 feet per minute with no flare. This can feel like a controlled crash, but it’s what the aircraft is designed to do, and in some cases it can do this at just below maximum takeoff weight.

goingnowhere

If it was a 'heavy' landing the aircraft would flag this itself and spit out a printout in the cockpit requiring an inspection.

No one was injured, everyone arrived safely and the aircraft was likely fully serviceable afterwards

Vueling fly A320's which is normally a soft landing and there is a bit of bounce as the landing gear absorbs the load. The 737 is more of a controlled impact into the runway and thats per Boeing instructions to make firm contact to ensure good braking

Spook_ie

Probably shouldn't have had the phone out anyway. I'd class it as something that should have been secured away ( in your pocket )