Narrative:

During the post-flight walkaround; it was discovered that the tailskid had been scraped sometime during the landing phase. The landing was a firm one; but not a hard landing; which was confirmed by the flight mechanic. Inbound I [had been] asked to accomplish and accepted a visual approach to runway 15. I was initially high but corrected to a stable approach. My speed was 139 knots (which was computed command bug speed) into the flare but the flare was late and we made a firm landing. I remember holding the nose in the landing attitude after the touchdown for a split second to prevent the nose gear from slamming onto the runway. This may have caused the tailskid scrape. The GPWS was deferred inoperative for this aircraft and did not provide the usual 50; 40; 30; 10 foot callouts I am used to hearing and relying upon to initiate my flare. In addition even though we reviewed the GPWS deferral in the ddg; I did not insist that the first officer; who was the pilot monitoring; give me these callouts verbally because they are not required callouts during a visual approach. The flight mechanic also mentioned to me that he did not hear or feel any tailskid scrape during main gear touchdown. The flight mechanic stated that he had experienced a tailskid scrape before in the B-763 and it was very evident from the noise he heard. Again this time he stated that there was no noticeable noise or other indication that a tailskid scrape had occurred. The tailskid scrape; even though a serious event; did not cause any serious damage and passed all maintenance inspections and the tailskid was cleared by maintenance and the flight crew was cleared to fly on to the next destination without incident.the inoperative GPWS was a contributing factor to this incident. I believe that all callouts should be mandatory during any approach even if the pilot flying calls for visual callouts when the GPWS is inoperative. In addition a precision approach should be the recommended approach when the GPWS is deferred inoperative.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B767-300ER flight crew suffered a tail skid strike on a firm landing conducted from a visual approach. The reporters cited the loss of sequential low altitude/flare RA altitude callouts due to the GPWS being deferred was a critical factor.

Narrative: During the post-flight walkaround; it was discovered that the tailskid had been scraped sometime during the landing phase. The landing was a firm one; but not a hard landing; which was confirmed by the Flight Mechanic. Inbound I [had been] asked to accomplish and accepted a visual approach to Runway 15. I was initially high but corrected to a stable approach. My speed was 139 knots (which was computed command bug speed) into the flare but the flare was late and we made a firm landing. I remember holding the nose in the landing attitude after the touchdown for a split second to prevent the nose gear from slamming onto the runway. This may have caused the tailskid scrape. The GPWS was deferred inoperative for this aircraft and did not provide the usual 50; 40; 30; 10 foot callouts I am used to hearing and relying upon to initiate my flare. In addition even though we reviewed the GPWS deferral in the DDG; I did not insist that the First Officer; who was the Pilot Monitoring; give me these callouts verbally because they are not required callouts during a visual approach. The Flight Mechanic also mentioned to me that he did not hear or feel any tailskid scrape during main gear touchdown. The Flight Mechanic stated that he had experienced a tailskid scrape before in the B-763 and it was very evident from the noise he heard. Again this time he stated that there was no noticeable noise or other indication that a tailskid scrape had occurred. The tailskid scrape; even though a serious event; did not cause any serious damage and passed all maintenance inspections and the tailskid was cleared by Maintenance and the flight crew was cleared to fly on to the next destination without incident.The inoperative GPWS was a contributing factor to this incident. I believe that all callouts should be mandatory during any approach even if the Pilot Flying calls for visual callouts when the GPWS is inoperative. In addition a precision approach should be the recommended approach when the GPWS is deferred inoperative.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.