Austrian A320neo Stays Grounded at Heathrow After Landing Tail Strike

An Austrian Airlines Airbus A320neo remained on the ground at London Heathrow in early October after its tail struck the runway on landing, an event the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has classified as an accident.

What happened

Flight OS333 from Vienna touched down on Heathrow’s runway 27L at about 11:50 local time on 19 September 2026. According to AeroInside, the tail contacted the runway surface during the landing. The aircraft rolled out normally and taxied to the apron, and nobody was reported hurt.

The aircraft involved is OE-LZN, an A320-200N that German-language aviation outlet Aerotelegraph describes as about four years old and the first A320neo delivered to Austrian. The return service to Vienna was cancelled because of the damage.

Weather data quoted by AeroInside for the time of landing showed wind from 240 degrees at 21 knots, overcast cloud at 3,200 feet, a temperature of 22 degrees C and a pressure of 1015 mb. The wind was close to a direct headwind component for runway 27L, although the available reports do not say whether turbulence or gusts played a part.

AAIB classification

AeroInside cites an AAIB entry dated 2 October that records the occurrence as an accident because the aircraft “suffered rear fuselage contact during landing and received substantial damage”. Under international rules, damage of that kind to the structure moves an event out of the incident category, and the investigation is led by the state where it happened. The AAIB has not published findings, and no cause has been stated by the airline or the investigators.

Tail strikes on landing are usually linked to pitch attitude and flare technique, and they can follow an unstabilised or gusty approach. None of that has been established for OS333, and it would be premature to attribute it to any one factor.

Recovery plan

Austrian said technicians from its own engineering team and from sister airline Swiss are working on the aircraft in coordination with Airbus. A company spokesperson told Aerotelegraph that Austrian expected to bring OE-LZN back to Austria as a ferry flight “in the coming days”. As of the AAIB entry on 2 October, the aircraft was still at Heathrow, which suggests the repair assessment is taking longer than first indicated.

Fleet impact

The grounding comes at a stretched moment for Austrian’s neo fleet. Aerotelegraph notes the airline currently flies six A320neos, with a seventh due for delivery in October. It also recalls that another of its neos, OE-LZP, sat idle for about a year awaiting replacement engines, and that OE-LZQ was out of service for an extended period after a collision with a jet bridge.

For a carrier of Austrian’s size, the loss of one narrowbody for several weeks matters for rostering across the Lufthansa Group’s Vienna hub, even if the group can lean on Swiss engineering support.

The AAIB normally publishes its findings in its monthly bulletin once field or correspondence work is complete, so a formal explanation is likely to take months rather than weeks.