Travel Service B738 at Lajes on Feb 22nd 2014, hard landing

A Travel Service Boeing 737-800, registration OK-TVT performing flight QS-4130 from Prague (Czech Republic) to Lajes Terceira Island (Portugal) with 160 people on board, landed on Lajes Airport's runway 15 for a planned refueling stop in strong gusting crosswinds at 06:43L (07:43Z), touched down hard with the nose gear first and rolled out without further incident.

A post flight inspection revealed the fuselage received creases on the right hand side near the nose gear strut, the aircraft was unable to continue the flight to Montego Bay (Jamaica), the ultimate destination of the flight.

Metars:

LPLA 221000Z 21030G42KT 9999 FEW009 SCT015 FEW018TCU 16/14 Q1010

LPLA 220930Z 21026G42KT 9999 FEW009 SCT015 16/13 Q1010 RESHRA

LPLA 220909Z 21029G40KT 3500 1500W SHRA SCT004 BKN011 16/14 Q1011

LPLA 220900Z 20026G36KT 6000 2000NW RA FEW008 BKN011 16/14 Q1010

LPLA 220800Z 20018G28KT 9999 VCSH FEW008 BKN011 15/14 Q1011

LPLA 220700Z 19022G32KT 160V230 9999 FEW008 BKN012 14/13 Q1013

LPLA 220600Z 18015G30KT 140V230 8000 -RA BKN014 BKN032 14/12 Q1015

LPLA 220500Z 19016G28KT 8000 -RA FEW015 BKN032 14/12 Q1016

LPLA 220400Z 19016G29KT 9999 FEW015 SCT035 14/11 Q1018