Yesterday, a Transavia France Boeing 737 suffered substantial structural damage while landing in Nantes, France. According to airlive.net, the runway was closed for two hours to clear away debris, with services slowly resuming from around 16:00 local time. There were no reports of injuries among the 160 people onboard.
From Tunisia to France
Flightradar.24.com
The Boeing 737-800 was operating flight TO3943 from Tunisia’s Djerba Zarzis International Airport (DJE), which departed at 09:20 for the 1,121 miles (1805 km) trip to Nantes. The 15-year-old aircraft, registered F-GZHA with MSN 34901, touched down at Nantes Atlantique Airport (NTE) at 13:06. As this tweet shows, the plane was left in a stricken state with damage to both its nosegear tires, landing gear and fuselage.
The report said that the two front wheels detached from the landing gear bogies as the plane was landing. Aviation Herald reported the 737 was landing “when both nose tires were damaged, causing the aircraft to roll out on the nose wheel rims.” It then vacated the runway and stopped on the taxiway, clear of the runway but leaving some debris behind. The French aviation accident investigator, the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), has launched an investigation into the incident.
Fleet and aircraft data from ch-aviation.com shows that Transavia France has 61 Boeing 737-800s, currently supplemented by three Airbus A320-family aircraft on wet lease arrangements. The wet-leased aircraft include one A319-100, F-HDSJ from Regourd Aviation, and an A320-200 (LZ-MDO) and A321-200 (LZ-MDF) from Fly2Sky. The 737-800s have an average age of just under ten years, with 44 leased from 17 lessors.
Summer in Europe and Winter in Canada
Bene Riobó via Wikimedia Commons
The aircraft involved in yesterday’s incident has an interesting operating profile, with continual swaps between Europe and Canada. According to Planespotters.net, it was initially headed for India’s SpiceJet, listed with the registration of VT-SPN and a one-class configuration of 189 seats, which has not changed in the fifteen years since. In May 2007, it was taken up by Transavia France as F-GZHA, leased from an unidentified lessor.
Since then, it has operated seven times during the northern winter in Canada, firstly between 2010 and 2013 with low-cost carrier CanJet and then with Air Transat from 2014 to 2017. The relationship with CanJet, which started in November 2010, usually saw the aircraft leave Transavia France in November and return in April. The last CanJet rotation saw the 737, which retained the F-GZHA registration throughout, return to France in April 2014, with CanJet later ceasing operations in 2015.
From December 2014, the aircraft was back in Canada, this time with Air Transat, which had previously had a charter relationship with CanJet. It returned to Transavia France, in April 2015, doing two more winter rotations with Air Transat in 2016 and 2017. Since April 2018, the Planespotters.net data shows Transavia France has operated it.
Source: airlive.net, Aviation Herald