CHI02LA170

The airplane was discovered with substantial damage to its tailskid and adjacent structure during a postflight maintenance inspection. The flight served as captain initial operating experience for the first officer who was seated in the left seat. The captain and company check airman for the flight was seated in the right seat. A jump seat rider seated in the forward cabin stated that the airplane appeared to level off and start a flare a little high. A correction was then made to reduce the pitch attitude to continue the descent. There appeared to be a high sink rate, an additional pitch change was made resulting in a firm landing.

On June 16, 2002, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82, N140NJ, operated by Vanguard Airlines as flight 313, was discovered to have substantial damage to its tailskid and adjacent structure during a postflight maintenance inspection. Flight 313 arrived at 2030 central daylight time and landed on runway 01L (10,801 feet by 150 feet, grooved concrete) at the Kansas City International Airport (MCI), Kansas City, Missouri. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of landing. The 14 CFR Part 121 passenger flight was operating on a flight plan. The 2 pilots, 3 flight attendants and 118 passengers reported no injuries. The flight departed from the Orlando International Airport, Orlando, Florida, en route to MCI.

The flight served as captain initial operating experience for the first officer who was seated in the left seat. The captain and company check airman for the flight was seated in the right seat.

The captain, who was the nonflying pilot, stated that they had been cleared for a visual approach to runway 01L. The first officer (FO) disengaged and the autopilot and the autothrottles remained engaged for the remainder of the flight. The reference landing speed (Vref) bug was set to 130 knots indicated airspeed (KIAS). At 1,000 feet above field elevation (AFE), the airplane was at 140 KIAS and half a dot below glide path. The first officer corrected to the glide path and at 500 feet AFE, the airplane was at 130 KIAS. At 100 feet above AFE, the captain made a call and checked outside to ensure that the airplane was aligned with the runway. He then brought his scan back inside and noticed the airspeed was just below Vref. He told the FO not to slow down any further. He rechecked runway alignment and then noticed the flight mode annunciator display had a blank left window, the throttles were already at idle and the auto throttle switch was in the engaged position while they were about 80 and 40 feet AFE. He decided that the engines would not be able to spool back up at this point and he shifted his attention back outside to gage the position of the airplane. He determined that the only action to take was to ensure that the nose of the airplane was not raised to cushion the landing. The airplane did not slow below Vref. The first officer said that he did not retard the throttles to idle manually.

A jump seat rider seated in the forward cabin stated that the airplane appeared to level off and start a flare a little high. A correction was then made to reduce the pitch attitude to continue the descent. There appeared to be a high sink rate, an additional pitch change was made resulting in a firm landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing Commercial Aircraft, and Vanguard Airlines were parties to the investigation.