An Ethiopian Airlines Airbus suffered extensive wing damage after a hard landing in Johannesburg earlier this month. The incident damaged a jet just one-year-old and is the latest in a series of incidents to dog the airline.
A hard landing causes wingtip damage
A report in The Aviation Herald details the incident on Saturday, November 6. The Ethiopian Airlines Airbus A350-900 was operating flight ET809 from Addis Ababa to Johannesburg. ET809 is the daily 08:40 departure down to South Africa’s biggest city.
On the day, ET-AYB was operating the flight. The jet is 12 months old. According to The Aviation Herald, the Airbus landed hard on Johannesburg’s runway 03R before aborting and going around to land safely about 20 minutes later.
Images later posted online reveal damage to the jet’s right wingtip. ADS-B data indicates the Airbus was descending at 500 plus feet per minute when it touched down. The jet landed around 120 meters past the runway’s threshold but before the first touch down zone marker.
