A PSA CRJ-900 (operating as American Eagle) suffered a wing tip strike in tricky weather in Newport, Virginia. There were no injuries.
This incident happened on Sunday, the 6th of March. It involved American Airlines flight AA-5662, operating as American Eagle, through PSA Airlines. It originated in Charlotte Douglas International (KCLT), heading to Newport News Williamsburg International (KPHF), in the United States. This is an hour-long flight, that the airline runs daily, just before midday.
The flight took off from Charlotte using runway 18L, with a ten-minute delay. It settled into a cruise at FL210. The PSA crew set up an approach on runway 25 in Newport News. But they had to go around after their CRJ-900 suffered a wing tip strike. The crew informed the tower that they went around due to gusting winds.
The CRJ-900, A Wing Tip Strike And Some Bad Weather
At the time, the weather conditions looked like this:
KPHF 061654Z 22021G28KT 10SM SCT035 23/15 A3022 RMK AO2 PK WND 23031/1604 SLP231 T02330150=
KPHF 061754Z 23017G24KT 10SM FEW039 24/15 A3018 RMK AO2 PK WND 22032/1703 SLP219 T02440150 10244 20161 58025=
The METARs indicate that the winds weren’t very far off the runway heading. However, there were strong gusts. Visibility wasn’t an issue. After the CRJ-900 suffered its wing tip strike, the tower advised other flight crews that the plane lost 15 knots of airspeed on final. Ten minutes after their first approach, the crew came back for another landing, without further incident.
In referring to this occurrence, the FAA classified it as an incident. The agency did expand on the amount of damage that the CRJ-900 suffered in this wing tip strike. However, the aircraft returned to service relatively quickly. The return leg to Charlotte was nearly 22 hours late, and the airline had to cancel two flights. Afterwards, the aircraft returned to regular service.
The aircraft suffering this wing tip strike is a Mitsubishi (formerly Bombardier) CRL-900, with tail number N602NN. It is just under three years old, first entering service in May 2019. PSA Airlines is its first operator, on behalf of American Airlines.
