Japan Airlines 777-200 suffers serious damage in tailstrike..

[Smudger98]

The tail section of a Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 777-200ER suffered serious damage on 31 March after it struck a runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport when the pilot aborted a landing and started a go-around.

The aircraft left Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 12:43 local time and the incident took place at approximately 16:10 local time, says a JAL spokeswoman. The aircraft eventually landed safely at Haneda at 16:38, and none of the 296 passengers and 12 crew onboard were injured, she adds.

The captain decided on the go-around as he felt that the aircraft had not "fully landed after the first touchdown", says the spokeswoman.

The impact left abrasion markings that were 0.5 metres wide and 11 metres long on the lower part of the tail section of the aircraft. The lower portion of the pressure bulkhead was also "misshapen" as a result of the incident, said the spokeswoman.

"The aircraft sustained damage and is classified as an accident under the Civil Aviation Law," she added.

"Japan Airlines is cooperating fully with the Japan Transport Safety Board in assessing the aircraft damage and in its ongoing investigations into the situation during the time of the accident."

The aircraft has the registration JA701J and its airframe was built in 2002, according to Flightglobal's ACAS database.

c/o- http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/japan-airlines-777-200-suffers-serious-damage-in-tailstrike-370363/