An Air Europa Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner has been damaged upon landing at Santo Domingo Airport in the Dominican Republic. The aircraft received multiple impacts on its underside from foreign objects believed to be sections of the runway surface that broke up as the aircraft landed.
The flight involved was Air Europa flight UX89 operating from Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) to Santo Domingo Las Americas International Airport (SDQ) on April 7, 2024. The flight was operated by one of the carrier’s 15-strong fleet of Boeing 787-9s registered EC-NBX.
According to Flighradar24, the Boeing 787-9 departed Madrid at 15:51 local time on April 7, 2024, and landed at Santo Domingo (SDQ) at 18:47 local time later that same day after its eight hours 56 minutes oceanic crossing. Upon its arrival at the Caribbean airport, the aircraft taxied to the parking apron as normal. However, upon inspection, the fuselage of the aircraft was found to have sustained substantial damage on landing with numerous puncture holes spread across a wide area of its underside. The return flight to Madrid (AEA88) was subsequently canceled by the carrier.
According to preliminary information issued by the carrier, the runway asphalt surface partially collapsed when the aircraft landed, resulting in debris from the runway surface impacting and penetrating the underside of the plane’s fuselage. Operations were temporarily halted at the airport while emergency repairs were carried out to the runway surface, following which the airport reopened.
Photos published on X (formerly Twitter) showed the damage sustained to the fuselage, as well as several potholes in the runway surface, backing up opinions as to how the damage was caused.
Having spent two days on the ground in Santo Domingo undergoing temporary repairs, the aircraft was ferried back to Madrid on the morning of April 10, 2024, where it landed on Madrid’s runway 32 at 11:35 local time and taxied to a remote parking area at the airport awaiting Air Europa engineers to take a closer look at the extent of the damage.
Air Europa has since resumed its daily flight to Santo Domingo sending 787-9 EC-OEM on April 8, 2024, EC-NGM on April 9, 2024, and 787-8 EC-MIG on April 10, 2024.
The damaged aircraft now safely back at its home base of Madrid is 4.95 years old having been delivered to Air Europa in May 2019. According to ch-aviation, the aircraft is leased from BOC Aviation and seats 333 passengers in a two-class configuration – 30 in business class and 303 in economy class.