Plane tail strikes occur each every so often, although this is likely one of the extra uncommon ones that I’ve seen caught on digicam…
DHL A300 has dramatic tail strike at London Heathrow
BIG JET TV does a tremendous job capturing video footage of plane taking off and touchdown at among the world’s busiest airports. They had been recording immediately (Sunday, October 12, 2025) at London Heathrow Airport, and goodness, did they catch fairly a touchdown.
A 34-year-old DHL Airbus A300 with the license plate D-AEAG was performing flight QY2212 from Leipzig (LEJ) to London (LHR), scheduled to reach somewhat after 5PM.
In video footage posted on-line, the aircraft may be seen trying to land on runway 9L. It appeared to be somewhat windy, however nothing out of the extraordinary. The aircraft’s left predominant gear touched down earlier than the best predominant gear touched down, and there was a little bit of side-to-side bouncing. Nonetheless, it didn’t appear to be there was something too alarming… till the aircraft was pitched up drastically.
It was pitched up to date that the aircraft suffered a tail strike… just for the pilots to then carry out a go round.
The aircraft was then sequenced in for one more method, and landed on runway 9R with out incident round 20 minutes later, at 5:33PM.
What on earth went fallacious with this method?
To begin with, it’ll be fascinating to see for a way lengthy this aircraft is grounded. It might be that simply an inspection must be carried out and that the whole lot is kind of effective (apart from some lacking paint). Or it might be that there’s structural harm, and that the aircraft might be out of service for months.
At the very least visually, this doesn’t look like one of many tougher tail strikes I’ve seen, so maybe this received’t be that huge of a deal. That being stated, visuals don’t at all times inform the total story.
This complete scenario is a bit odd. Based mostly on watching the video, it could seem the pilots simply couldn’t get the wheels down in a secure means. But they deployed the reverse thrust and pace brakes, solely to then carry out a go round, with elevator inputs sending the nostril up.
The A300 seems moderately “pudgy,” so it seems like a aircraft the place it could virtually be troublesome to have a tail strike (in contrast to an A340-600, for instance). It’s fairly unbelievable to see the angle of assault on the time of the tail strike — that nostril was means up there!
Backside line
A DHL Airbus A300 suffered a tail strike whereas trying to land at London Heathrow immediately. Tail strikes occur occasionally, however your complete try was unusual. The pilots deployed the reverse thrusters and pace brakes, solely to then pitch the nostril means up and go round.
Hopefully the aircraft isn’t broken too badly, although one thing tells me {that a} pilot or two could also be headed for some additional simulator hours…
What do you make of this unusual DHL tried touchdown?
Supply hyperlink
