A Qatar Airways Airbus A350’s aft fuselage was damaged during a tailstrike incident at Islamabad International Airport (ISB), Pakistan.
The Airbus A350-900, registered as A7-ALN, was operating flight QR614 between Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) and ISB on April 16, 2023, when the incident occurred while landing. After performing a go-around, the wide-body aircraft landed at ISB safely.
According to flightradar24.com data, the Airbus A350-900 initially landed at ISB at 7:47 AM local time (UTC +5) with the flight crew initiating a go-around immediately afterwards and trying to land at the airport once again. During the second approach, the Qatar Airlines aircraft reached a peak altitude of 5,075 feet (1,546 meters) before finally landing at ISB at 8:00 AM local time (UTC +5).
Pictures posted on Twitter showcased the damage to the aircraft’s aft fuselage.
The aircraft has remained at ISB since the incident with two return journeys from the Pakistani city to DOH on flight QR615, scheduled for April 16 and April 17, 2023, were canceled, per flightradar24.com data.
On April 16, 2023, the return journey was supposed to be operated by the aircraft involved in the incident, while on April 17, 2023, it was scheduled to be operated by one of the airline’s Boeing 787-8s.
Qatar Airways other flight to Doha, flight QR633, departed ISB on a Boeing 777-300, registered as A7-BAZ, on April 17, 2023.
The flag carrier of Qatar took delivery of the Airbus A350-900 on February 27, 2017, utilizing the wide-body jet extensively. As of January 31, 2023, it has a total of 29,086 flight hours (FH) and 4,412 flight cycles (FC), according to ch-aviation.com data.
“Qatar Airways can confirm that flight QR614, an Airbus A350-900 operating from Doha, Qatar to Islamabad, Pakistan, performed a go around before landing safely shortly afterwards on Sunday, 16 April,” said a Qatar Airways spokesperson in an emailed statement to AeroTime. According to them, “the aircraft is currently being inspected for a potential tail strike and a delay to the return flight is expected while these checks are performed”.
“We apologise to our customers for the delay and they are currently being provided hotel accommodation and will rebooked on to flights to Doha at the earliest opportunity. The safety of our crew and customers remains Qatar Airways’ top priority,” concluded the spokesperson.
UPDATE April 17, 2023, 3:00 PM (UTC +3): The article was updated with a statement from Qatar Airways.
