Response of Qatar CEO to a question about this tailstrike at MIA:
“Such kind of incidents happen quite often, either it is a tail strike on the runway or it is contact with the landing lights,” says Al Baker. “It is nothing out of context.”
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/a...nts-to-air-traffic-control-in-miami-c-419912/
And in the end he's right. Think back to your last few months of flying and we can all find times where we made mistakes, and undoubtedly some of them included aircraft damage.
I'll come clean and admit that we dragged the tail twice just yesterday, and punctured the pressure bulkhead on the second one. It happens. I had one two weeks ago as well; it was dark and we couldn't figure out what some of our takeoff data meant so we just blasted off. It wasn't that loud of a hit, according to passengers in the last few rows...just enough to take out the entire MALSR system with our thin metal fuselage at 180MPH -- but these kind of incidents happen quite often, be it a tail strike or contact with the landing lights. Don't take it out of context.
Also, it's never a good idea to request the tower to send an airport ops truck down to the end of the runway to check for any evidence of a tailstrike. They could be on a meal break and should not be bothered;
just move the jet to where it's scheduled to go.