A supervising pilot realised a Virgin Australia plane was in trouble too late to escape a hard landing at Canberra airport, an investigation has found.
While no one was injured in the November 2017 incident, the plane took on "substantial damage" to its undercarriage.
Four seconds before it touched down, the plane was still rushing in to the ground faster than its design limit would allow - at 784 feet a minute - according to a final report released by the safety watchdog on Tuesday.
While flying into Canberra from Sydney on November 19, the ATR aircraft hit some light turbulence. The pilot noticed the plane was overshooting its mark and, about 118 feet above the ground, dropped engines back to idle.
But this sped up its descent rate, increasing drag.
A supervising captain, noticing what was happening, twice called for more power before intervening himself.
But by then it was too late.
Investigators said fatigue was not a factor in the accident and the flight crew reported they regularly encountered turbulence of this kind at Canberra Airport.
But just before the plane touched down, the report did find a sudden wind gust further increased the speed of impact.
In response to the incident, Virgin Australia said it had updated its operational documentation and rolled out further training in landing speed management for staff.
The plane was carrying 67 passengers at the time and was taken to Brisbane for repairs, but Virgin did not provide the cost.
The safety bureau has investigated 16 aviation incidents in Canberra over the past decade, four of which were serious. The airport itself did not play a role in this case.
Nat Nagy at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it instead highlighted the need for crews to "adhere to standard operating procedures" and conduct a go-around trip when an approach became unstable.
Unstable approaches were still a "leading contributor" to landing crashes, he said.
Last financial year, the bureau investigated more than 60 aviation cases. As of Tuesday, there were still 105 investigations underway.
