It didn’t make sense.
Not at first. Then not after the second approach.
A Kalitta Air Boeing 77-300ER, registration N778CK, touched down, popped up, and scraped its tail on the pavement in Cincinnati. Then it went around. Then it tried again. And then it missed the instrument landing system signal entirely, forcing a third go-around. By the time it landed safely, 27 minutes had passed. The story has everyone scratching their heads.
The First Tail Strike: Sparks and Confusion
This happened on Sunday, July 19. Flight K4262 arrived from Brussels, Belgium. The aircraft is a 21-year-old freighter. Kalitta Air flies cargo, not passengers. This wasn’t a weekend joyride. It was a job.
The time was 7:52 PM local. The plane was lined up with Runway 36R. Conditions? Fine. Light winds. No storm systems. Nothing in the sky suggested danger.
So why the go-around?
Pilots called it. That’s clear from the audio. But here is where it gets weird: they called it after the wheels hit the ground. You can see the video. Tires touch tarmac. Then nose pitches up hard. Then bam. Tail strike.
Sparks flew. Lots of them. This wasn’t a light scrape. The aft section of the fuselage kissed the runway with serious force. An emergency was declared immediately. Controllers heard it. The plane heard it. The ground crew heard it.
The pilots wanted to try again. Specifically, they asked for the ILS (Instrument Landing System) approach to Runway 36C instead. Different runway. Different procedure. Why change plans mid-crisis? Probably because 36R was closed or deemed unsafe after the scrape. Maybe.
The Second Miss: Failed to Intercept
They entered the pattern. They flew the route. But they didn’t catch the signal.
That is the real head-scratcher.
A Boeing 777 is a sophisticated bird. Pilots are trained to handle instrument approaches in their sleep. Yet, this time, they didn’t lock onto the localizer. The controller saw it happening. He told them to go around. You can see the track on VASAviation’s map. It looked messy. Off-course. Unstable.
So up they went. Again.
Another go-around. Another climb out. Another look at the approach. And finally, at 8:19 PM, they landed. Safe. On Runway 26C. Note the change in direction. They came in from the opposite end of the airport. Total landing time: roughly 27 minutes from that first spark-flying tail scrape.
“Kalitta Air Flight 264 [sic] landed safely… after the tail of the Boeing 77-300EER scraped the runway during a go-around… The FAA will investigate.”
That’s the official FAA statement. Note the flight number discrepancy: K4262 in the ops, K4264 in the report? Or maybe a typo in the press release. The FAA says K4264. The ops log says K4262. Details matter in investigations.
The Questions Nobody Can Answer Yet
Weather was neutral. Winds were light. Visibility was likely good. This wasn’t a monsoon landing in Manila. This wasn’t crosswind madness.
So what went wrong?
First question: Why did they go around after touchdown on Runway 36R? Did the runway feel unstable? Was there debris? Or was it a pilot decision based on a bad angle? The video shows the wheels on. Then the lift. Then the strike.
Second question: Why the tail strike? Did they pull up too hard? Too late? Or was the gear extension issue causing a nose-up attitude that dragged the tail?
Third question: Why miss the ILS on the second attempt? This is the part that defies easy logic. You have the tools. You have the training. You have a clear signal. Yet they drifted. The controller noticed. The path was wrong. Why?
Fatigue? Confusion over runway changes? Miscommunication? We don’t know. Not yet.
The FAA is investigating. That’s standard. But this sequence—touchdown, go-around, tail strike, second approach, missed signal, third landing—is not standard. It’s chaotic. It’s dangerous. It’s a perfect storm of small errors compounding into a major incident.
Will the black box reveal a system failure? Or just human error? The age of the aircraft (21 years) might be a red herring. Old planes are well-maintained. But maintenance history will be part of the review.
One thing is clear: something broke. Maybe a tire. Maybe a sensor. Maybe the pilot’s judgment.
We’ll see what the NTSB says. Until then, it’s just speculation and sparks.
