No, not a hard landing. As Spokey has said, a fast one and he couldn't stop before the end of the runway. The damage was caused as he was still travelling at about 115kph when he got to the end of the runway and crashed into a wall further along. Spokey also spoke about the effect of a tailwind on stopping but let me try and answer the question differently and explain in layman's terms and very simplified, WHY this is so. There is a minimum airspeed for each aircraft below which the wing will stall and stop flying. Lots of things affect the stall speed, but for the purposes of this explanation consider it a constant. The landing speed of an aircraft takes the stall speed and adds a margin to that to ensure the plane flies all the way to the landing. Now, if there is zero wind and the plane moves through the air at 100kt, it is also moving over the ground at 100kt. If you are moving through the air at 100kt but you have a tailwind of 30kt you are moving across the ground at 130kt. Lekker when you are cruising: comfortable through the air, but fast to your destination. Conversely, if there is a 30kt headwind, and you maintain a airspeed of 100kt, you are travelling over the ground at only 70kt. i.e. Fast through the air, but nice and slow over the ground- which is what you want when you are landing. Remember, until it has landed the airplane does not care how fast it is moving over the ground, it is air moving over the wings that stops the wing stalling and keeps the plane aloft. However, once you are on the ground groundspeed becomes crucial as you want to be as slow as possible because you ultimately need to stop. Stopping a plane travelling at 130kt as opposed to 70kt is obviously a different proposition and therefore a plane typically lands into the wind because in addition to the lift provided by the plane's forward movement through the air, the wind moves more air over the wing allowing you to remain airborne but land at the lowest groundspeed.
