It appears the problem was in an electrical fault with the generator that powered the winch for the mooring line on the ground equipment, and that the pilot was under the impression that the mooring line was only 1/4 as long as it actually was. This lead to the pilot snagging the mooring line on landing, when the mooring line got loose on a second go-around as the ground crew replaced the battery in the ground equipment.
It sounds like they have made some redesigns so that if the pilot comes in at a nose low attitude again they will instead hit a cushion, rather then the cockpit, that will lesson the impact on the ship.
Still they added in their own internal report that: HAV identified the need to establish “effective stowage and control arrangements for a deployed mooring line, enhanced maintenance and fault reporting regimes for ground support equipment, and [to perform] a review of relevant static heaviness issues”, the report concludes. Read more here.
Hopefully with a little luck, Airlander will be back in the air soon with a great many hours of error free flying ahead of it.
