American Airlines 737-800 Suffers Tail Strike on Landing Chicago

American Airlines flight AA2715, a Boeing 737-800 inbound from Florida, suffered a tail strike on landing in Chicago (ORD) on 6 June 2024.

An American Airlines Boeing 737-800 inbound from Florida suffered a tail strike on landing in Chicago on 6 June 2024.

American airlines flight AA2715, a Boeing 737-800 had arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport from West Palm Beach.

American AA2715 Palm Beach-Chicago

Flight track of American Airlines AA2715 from palm Beach to Chicago ORD.

An initial approach was made to runway 27C, from which flight crew initiated a missed approach and go around procedure.

The aircraft conducted a circuit and repositioned for a subsequent approach to runway 28C. During this second attempt, the aircraft experienced a tail strike on landing.

Flight track of American Airlines AA2715 from Palm Beach to Chicago ORD showing first approach.

According to a subsequent FAA report, the damage sustained to the aircraft was relatively minor. Weather conditions at the time were visual meteorological conditions (VFR) with winds gusting to 28 knots.

Flight track of American Airlines AA2715 from Palm Beach to Chicago ORD showing second approach

Flight & Aircraft Details

Flight data shows that American Airlines flight AA2715 made a late departure from Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) on 6 June.

The flight departed at 1601 local time, which was an hour later than the scheduled departure time of 1510 local time.

The aircraft set course normally, climbing to flight level FL360 (36,000 feet) for the northerly service to Chicago (ORD).

Let down and initial approach procedures were similarly conducted normally. Flight crew initiated a missed approach procedure from approximately 1000 feet on the initial approach to runway 27C.

The aircraft then conducted the circuit and repositioned for second approach, which was made to runway 28C.

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The aircraft conducting the AA2715 rotation from Palm Beach, Florida was a Boeing 737-800 registered N916AN.

This is a 24.9 year old narrowbody aircraft belonging to the US carrier American airlines. The aircraft has been operational service with the airline since its initial delivery in August 1999.

Following the tail strike incident the aircraft is yet to fly operationally.