An Air Europa flight encountered substantial damage during its landing procedure in a recent and concerning development at Domingo Airport, located in the Dominican Republic. The aircraft involved, one of Air Europa’s fleet of Boeing 787-9s registered under the designation EC-NBX, was executing Flight UX89, departing from Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) with Santo Domingo Las Americas International Airport (SDQ) as its intended destination on April 7, 2024.
Initial reports indicate that upon touchdown, the aircraft sustained multiple impacts on its underside from foreign objects, suspected to be sections of the runway surface that disintegrated upon contact. Departing Madrid at 15:51 local time, the flight endured an extensive eight-hour and fifty-six-minute transoceanic journey, ultimately arriving in Santo Domingo at approximately 18:47.
Upon thorough examination upon arrival at Santo Domingo, it became evident that the aircraft’s fuselage had incurred substantial damage, marked by numerous puncture perforations spread across a significant area of its underside. Consequently, Air Europa made the decision to cancel the scheduled return flight to Madrid, identified as AEA88.
Initial assessments from the airline suggest that the partial collapse of the runway asphalt surface coincided with the aircraft’s landing, leading to the subsequent impact and penetration of debris into the fuselage’s underside. In response, airport operations were swiftly suspended to facilitate urgent repairs to the compromised runway surface.
Visual evidence circulated through various social media platforms served to further underscore the extent of the fuselage damage, also highlighting the presence of several potholes on the runway surface, thereby intensifying speculation regarding the factors contributing to the incident.
Following interim repairs conducted at Santo Domingo, the affected aircraft underwent transportation back to Madrid on April 10, 2024. Upon its arrival at Madrid’s runway 32 at 11:35 local time, the aircraft was promptly directed to a secluded parking area, where Air Europa’s engineering team initiated a comprehensive evaluation to assess the extent of the incurred damage.
Despite this unforeseen setback, Air Europa promptly resumed its routine flight operations to Santo Domingo, deploying alternative aircraft for the designated route. The afflicted Boeing 787-9, with an approximate age of 4.95 years and having been incorporated into Air Europa’s fleet in May 2019, is under lease from BOC Aviation, featuring a seating capacity of 333 passengers distributed across a two-class configuration, consisting of 30 business class and 303 economy class seats.
Authorities have since commenced further inquiries into the incident to extract additional insights and formulate preventive measures aimed at averting potential recurrences of such incidents.