A320
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness / Injury; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors; Weather
On a visual approach to runway XYL at ZZZ we had a hard landing that resulted in a bounce and subsequent landing. The ATIS wind was reported at 280/11G19. The approach was normal and uneventful. At around 800 or 900 feet we had a little bit of a tail wind; but the wind was shifting in both direction and speed. The last wind that I saw was out of the west at maybe 6 to 8 knots. At less than 40 feet; somewhere around 30 feet; both the First Officer and I felt the plane start to sink a little. Not unusual for ZZZ in the spring and summer. I increased the angle of attack to slow the sink rate and left the thrust in the climb detent to insure an increase in thrust as I increased back pressure. At 20 feet the airplane was still sinking. I continued to increase back pressure and left the thrust in all the way to landing. The airplane was not responding to my control inputs and just before landing I felt the side stick hit the aft stop. The last 10 feet or so it just felt like the bottom fell out. The airplane landed hard and bounced back into the air. At this point I was concerned about hitting the tail. I heard the auto 'pitch' call and lowered the nose to allow the plane to land firmly on the runway. The First Officer quickly reported a loss of 30 knots over the runway to the tower. Taxi in was normal. As we taxied in I looked at the 'G' meter on the systems display; and no indication was observed. The airplane was due a periodic check so maintenance personnel were waiting to meet the plane. As I was talking to them about the hard landing I got a call from the flight attendant in the back of the airplane. I asked if they were okay and they indicated that they got banged around pretty good. I asked if they needed the paramedics; and they said no. A few minutes later while I was talking with maintenance; they called back and said they would like the paramedics to check them out. I called operations to make that happen. By this time the First Officer had returned from the post flight walk around and informed me of a scrape on the bottom of the fuselage just before the tail. I went with the maintenance folks downstairs to inspect the damage. They noticed the aft lav drain mast had a scrape; as well. As the maintenance folks were checking the reports generated by the plane; they noticed that it had generated multiple load reports from other flights. Only one pertained to our flight. After arriving at home; I realized that I might not have signed the log book entry I made for this event.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
Air carrier flight crew reported a loss of airspeed just before touchdown that resulted in a hard; bounced landing and tail skid damage.