What the profile screens for
Pitch attitude at gear contact approaches or crosses an aircraft-specific tail-clearance monitoring condition.
Why it matters
High touchdown pitch can reduce tail-clearance margin and may combine with gear compression, runway slope, and bounce dynamics.
Build the event around relationships—not one number.
Define the operating context
Identify the landing state, aircraft configuration, location, and any required external data before applying logic.
Screen the signal relationship
Use validated combinations of pitch attitude, weight-on-wheels, radio altitude; avoid treating one isolated value as the whole event.
Confirm it is a genuine event
Check polarity, units, source, recording rate, dropouts, air/ground logic, persistence, and false-positive mechanisms.
Connect data to the safety question
Review procedures, reports, weather, airport and traffic context, exposure, recurrence, and the strength of the related barriers.
Recorded signals that may help explain the event.
Normal acceleration
Acceleration measured broadly along the aircraft's vertical body axis; its touchdown peak can help characterize a landing load when interpreted with other signals.
Open parameter guide ↗ftRadio altitude
Height derived from radio altimetry, normally representing the distance from the aircraft to terrain directly below within the system's operating range.
Open parameter guide ↗degPitch attitude
Aircraft body attitude above or below the local horizontal reference.
Open parameter guide ↗discreteLanding gear status
Command, position, lock, and ground-sensing states associated with the landing gear; these are separate signals with different meanings.
Open parameter guide ↗Questions before conclusions
- Q1
Are pitch attitude, weight-on-wheels, radio altitude valid, correctly decoded, time-aligned, and sampled well enough for this event?
- Q2
What changed immediately before, during, and after the excessive pitch at touchdown indication?
- Q3
How do aircraft configuration, weather, airport geometry, automation state, and crew reports change the interpretation?
- Q4
Which current flight manual, SOP, maintenance, or operator event definition controls the final conclusion?
Safety topics that broaden the event review.
Landing flare
Transition from approach descent to touchdown, including pitch, thrust, sink, visual cues, wind, aircraft response, and runway remaining.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-027 · Takeoff & departureTakeoff tail-strike prevention
Protection of tail clearance through correct loading, trim, speed, rotation timing and rate, runway effects, and flight-control response.
Open topic profile ↗Hard Landing
A structured guide to recognizing, reporting, analyzing, and responding to a suspected touchdown load exceedance without confusing passenger perception with an engineering determination.
Open topic brief ↗Flight OperationsTail Strike
Understand how aircraft geometry, pitch rate, gear compression, speed, and control technique combine near takeoff or landing.
Open topic brief ↗WeatherCrosswind Operations
Manage alignment, drift, bank, gust response, touchdown sequence, and directional control using aircraft- and operator-specific techniques.
Open topic brief ↗12 useful starting points
Terminology and topic relationships select these links; the publisher source remains authoritative.
High Load Event Reporting
The Airbus Safety First article explains why a pilot report remains central after a suspected high-load event and how recorded reports and analysis tools can support the applicable maintenance process.
Open official sourceSAFO 10001 — Possible effects of Thickened Anti-icing Fluids on Takeoff Rotation for Airplanes withUnpowered Elevator Controls
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for takeoff and weather. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceA Focus on the Landing Flare
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for approach and landing. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceA Focus on the Takeoff Rotation
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for takeoff. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceA320 Tail strike at Take-Off?
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for takeoff. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceAirbus Crosswind Development and Certification
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for aviation safety. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceHard Landing, a Case Study for Crews and Maintenance Personnel
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for approach and landing and maintenance. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceIncorrect pitch trim setting at takeoff
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for takeoff and flight controls and automation. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourcePreventing Tailstrike During Go-around Near the Ground
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for ground operations. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceAnnex 19 — Safety Management, Third Edition
Annex 19 consolidates ICAO safety-management provisions, including State safety responsibilities, SMS, safety-data collection and processing, and the protection and sharing of safety information.
Open official sourceAnnual Safety Review 2025
EASA's review uses occurrence and accident information to describe performance across aviation domains and to support the European safety-risk-management process.
Open official sourceStatistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents, 1959–2024
Boeing's 56th annual statistical summary organizes commercial-jet accident data using stated definitions and the CAST/ICAO occurrence taxonomy.
Open official source