This Day in History: 2009-03-20

At Melbourne Airport on 20 March 2009, an Emirates Airbus A340 scraped its tail along the tarmac and grassland beyond the runway, then hit airport landing lights and disabled a radio antenna before climbing away. The pilots discovered an incorrect weight reading and thrust setting in the laptop computer, while they were circling Port Phillip Bay readying for an eventual safe emergency landing at Tullamarine. Source: ATSB, Tailstrike Melbourne Airport, Vic. 20 March 2009 A6-ERG Airbus A340-541, media release, 18 December 2009. via aph.gov.au website