The aircraft apparently impacted the ground with significant force, enough to puncture the fuselage in several sections, not just the scrapes that are characteristic of tailstrikes. The damage and nature of the incident were severe enough for the Argentine "Junta de Seguridad en el Transporte" (safety transport commission) to characterize it as an "Accident".
LV-KJE remained on the ground in MDQ for several months while the extent of the damage was evaluated to determine if it was economically feasible for it to be repaired or if it would be written off for spare parts. Plus, there was the matter of the damage possibly rendering the aircraft unairworthy for a ferry flight to where it could be repaired.
Finally, maintenance technicians from Flybondi and representatives from Boeing judged that LV-KJE could possibly be repaired at a reasonable cost to save the aircraft from the scrapyard, but that the ferry flight to Victorville (VCV), where it would be repaired would need to be done at below 10,000 ft. because the aircraft's structural integrity was not sufficient enough for it to be pressurized for high-altitude flight.
The routing from Mar de Plata (MDQ) to Victorville (VCV) would normally be over the towering Andes mountain range bordering Argentina and Chile with some peaks reaching over 20,000 ft., but the non-pressurization requirement made this routing impossible, so the airline decided that LV-KJE would fly to southern Patagonia, near the Tierra del Fuego province, to fly west and back north along the Chilean territory, north to Santiago (SCL), more than doubling the normal routing of 1,300 km. to 2,950 km.
LV-KJE departed Mar del Plata (MDQ) on 25May24 to the Boeing repair shops in Victorville (VCV) on a multi-stop journey via Santiago (SCL), Guayaquil (GYE), San Salvador (SAL) and Yuma (YUM).
Over the next few weeks, Boeing engineers and the contracted staff of other companies performed the necessary repairs to LV-KJE's fuselage and other components that were damaged in the tailstrike, with the aircraft flying back to Argentina on a Victorville (VCV) - Panama City (PTY) - Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) routing, departing the US on 02Jul24 and arriving at EZE the following day.
LV-KJE re-entered service on Flybondi's route system in the following days.
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