Multiple passengers and crew were taken to hospital after an American Airlines Airbus A321neo made a hard landing. The FAA is investigating.

This accident happened on Saturday the 27th of January, involving American Airlines flight AA-271. The airline performs this flight daily, departing from Los Angeles International (KLAX) at 8:50 AM. Its destination is Kahului Airport (PHOG) in Hawaii.

On the day of this hard landing accident, there were 167 passengers and 7 crew on board the American Airlines A321neo. The flight departed from Los Angeles with a delay of approximately one hour and forty minutes.

According to some reports, the passengers had to spend much of that time sitting on board the aircraft. Eventually, the flight took off uneventfully, using runway 25R. Its climb was also uneventful, but for nearly two hours, the aircraft flew at only FL280.

After this, the aircraft climbed further, to cruise at FL340 for the rest of the flight. At this stage, we don’t know if these delays or the cruise altitude have any bearing on the landing of this American Airlines A321neo.

American Airlines A321neo Hard Landing

The flight crew would land on runway 20 in Kahului. They did so in windy and possibly gusty conditions, just after 2 PM local time (12:03 AM UTC):

• PHOG 272354Z 20023KT 10SM FEW020 SCT045 27/21 A2983 RMK AO2 PK WND 19030/2319 SLP108 T02670206 10272 20233 58029=
• PHOG 280054Z 20017G25KT 10SM FEW035 SCT060 26/21 A2983 RMK AO2 PK WND 19030/0023 SLP106 T02610206=

It is not clear if the injuries of the American Airlines passengers and crew happened during the landing itself. ADS-B data suggests that the aircraft briefly climbed, just before touching down.

After the incident, the flight crew taxied the aircraft to a gate. 5 cabin crew members and one passenger were taken to a hospital for checks. But they were in a stable condition and reportedly didn’t need to spend the night at the hospital.

The rest of the passengers disembarked normally. After the event, the FAA reported that the American Airlines A321neo suffered a hard landing. In a statement, American Airlines confirmed that this A321neo “experienced an issue upon landing”.

The airline canceled the return flight (AA-212) to LAX. As of this writing, the aircraft remains in Kahului, after being towed to a remote stand. It has tail number N416AN and is just under four years old. American took delivery of this jet in February 2020.

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