American Airlines Flight 2065

According to the flight crew, the departure, en route, and initial approach phases were reported to be without incident. During the approach, the crew selected gear down and flaps 28 [degrees] for landing and the landing weight was 127,000 pounds. The air traffic control tower reported the winds at 100 degree and 6 knots. The airplane broke out of a thin cloud layer with the base at approximately 1,000 feet above ground level. At 100 feet above the runway, the captain detected a "sinker" and then applied thrust to arrest the sink. The aircraft continued to sink in the flare and made a "very firm landing with no bounce." A review of the DFDR data revealed that a few seconds prior to touchdown, the airspeed decreased 6 knots below Vref, and the pitch attitude changed from 2.1 degrees to 5.3 degrees. A vertical acceleration of 2.032 Gs was recorded at an airspeed of 129.2 knots. Vref was calculated at 135 knots. The pilot reported applying thrust when the sink rate was detected; however, the DFDR data revealed that the engine EPR's did not increase until 7 seconds after touchdown. According to company procedures, "A stabilized approach means the airplane must be: at approach speed (VREF + additives); on the proper flight path at the proper sink rate, and at stabilized thrust. These requirements must be maintained throughout the rest of the approach for it to be considered a stabilized approach. If the stabilized approach requirements cannot be satisfied by the minimum stabilized approach heights or maintained throughout the rest of the approach, a go-around is required." The CVR recording consisted of four channels of audio information; however, none of the audio was pertinent to the incident investigation. The audio was consistent with the CVR being overwritten or recorded over by subsequent events.

**This narrative was modified on May 22, 2007.**

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset