Touch and go scare at Malaga Airport

A Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-900 covering the route between Istanbul and Malaga caused alarm at Malaga airport recently. The plane, having 77 passengers aboard, started the landing manoeuvre and when it was just about to make its landing, the tail touched the ground. After it did, the plane had to take off again. Then, after becoming stable once again, it started the landing manoeuvre this time without any problems.

Malaga based “spotter” Ivan Paneque, known in forums as Bokeroncito1983, recorded the incident with his video camera. He uploaded the video on YouTube on November 30th, the same day when it took place. Neither the airport nor sources from Turkish Airlines denied nor confirmed the news, though this newspaper inquired about it. Paneque said that it was a regular flight, arriving at 12:50.

Several risk factors came together in this incident: the tail hitting the runway and two “touch and go”, the name given to the act of touching the runway and transfer off immediately. Apparently, the plane was moving too fast when approaching, and it possibly had to abort the landing because after the second time touching, it did not have enough runway distance left to complete the landing in a secure manner. The plane made its taxi to Malaga airport without any problems.