I’m inclined to believe hydraulics were functioning based on the stabilized approach. The recent Azeri plane crash is what it looks like when you have no hydraulics. Granted, different planes, 737 NG has manual control, but it’d be difficult. Aside from a little shimmy the approach was good, especially considering they whipped a 180 after that first landing attempt on runway 01. The plane seemed to be well in control.
Also of note, there doesn’t appear to be any rudder applied on the approach, so one engine out seems to not be the case. They also tracked straight down the centerline so no asymmetric thrust. This would imply they either had both engines or no engines. I’m hesitant to believe both engines were out due to the speed they had after scraping down the runway, with the nose in the air.
I’m wondering if they got task saturated after the bird strike and quick go around 180, didn’t hear the “too low, gear” warning, then got spooked from the scrape and attempted a go around like that PIA crash. The initial tail strike happened way earlier on the runway, they floated for a long time after that initial contact.
Altogether very strange. Definitely a lot of Swiss cheese holes aligning in a terrible way. Very curious to see what’s recovered from the FDR and CVR.
I don’t know enough to say if it’s a valid theory, but I saw one commenter suggest this scenario:
I’m inclined to believe hydraulics were functioning based on the stabilized approach. The recent Azeri plane crash is what it looks like when you have no hydraulics. Granted, different planes, 737 NG has manual control, but it’d be difficult. Aside from a little shimmy the approach was good, especially considering they whipped a 180 after that first landing attempt on runway 01. The plane seemed to be well in control.
Also of note, there doesn’t appear to be any rudder applied on the approach, so one engine out seems to not be the case. They also tracked straight down the centerline so no asymmetric thrust. This would imply they either had both engines or no engines. I’m hesitant to believe both engines were out due to the speed they had after scraping down the runway, with the nose in the air.
I’m wondering if they got task saturated after the bird strike and quick go around 180, didn’t hear the “too low, gear” warning, then got spooked from the scrape and attempted a go around like that PIA crash. The initial tail strike happened way earlier on the runway, they floated for a long time after that initial contact.
Altogether very strange. Definitely a lot of Swiss cheese holes aligning in a terrible way. Very curious to see what’s recovered from the FDR and CVR.