A United Boeing 767-300, registration N641UA performing flight UA-702 from Newark,NJ to Houston Intercontinental,TX (USA), landed on Houston's runway 26L at 10:34L (15:34Z) but touched down hard. The aircraft rolled out without further incident and taxied to the apron. There were no injuries.
The final contributing factor was the aircraft flying very close to its maximum landing weight. The airplane landed at 196,000 lb and has a maximum landing weight of 198,000 lb, which is considered to have contributed to the damaged caused to the airframe.
Never heard of "landing weight" before. Is that basically just take-off weight minus the burned fuel it took to reach the destination? Can they potentially burn off more fuel prior to landing to reduce this risk?
Correct. It is also used for performance calculations. For example to calculate what Autobreak setting should be used based on the runway length, METAR and landing weight.
I know Airbus aircraft calculate the "EFOB" (End Fuel On Board) in the MCDU. A pilot can calculate the Landing Weight based on the EFOB number by looking at the current weight and calculating based on the EFOB what the landing weight would be.