AA300 - A321 JFK Apr 10th'19 - wingtip strike & collision with runway sign during departure

[I love to travel]

Pilots your thoughts?

An American Airlines Flight's Terrifying JFK Takeoff

An American Airlines plane departing JFK banked 45 degrees uncontrollably during takeoff, causing the wing to strike a runway sign. Here's what we know.

onemileatatime.com

 

[jb747]

Pilots your thoughts?

An American Airlines Flight's Terrifying JFK Takeoff

An American Airlines plane departing JFK banked 45 degrees uncontrollably during takeoff, causing the wing to strike a runway sign. Here's what we know.

onemileatatime.com

Interesting. As they have the recorders, I expect the real data will be available soon enough.

45º is a huge angle of bank. Near the ground, on a 321, I’d expect you’d be in wing strike territory at about 15º.

If I have to have a guess, wake would be the most likely culprit. The wake from a large aircraft is more than capable of doing that to a 737/320.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Pilots your thoughts?

An American Airlines Flight's Terrifying JFK Takeoff

An American Airlines plane departing JFK banked 45 degrees uncontrollably during takeoff, causing the wing to strike a runway sign. Here's what we know.

onemileatatime.com

45º!!?? Far out! How did that not warrant an immediate return if it was "uncontrollable"?

I agree it would have to be wake. We feel the jet blast from the departing heavies all the time when landing on 34L on a calm day. As experienced the other day I would say about 50ft the most roll I had on would've been about 10º, to think they went 45º is unbelievable.

 

[RooFlyer]

Here another news story re AA300.

American Airlines flight returns to JFK Airport after clipping wing

The FAA says American Airlines flight 300 that was bound from New York to Los Angeles landed safely back at JFK at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday.

abc7ny.com

If you look at the still photo of the wing tip, the winglet looks precariously close to have been sheared off ( although I guess it's stronger than that).

If it had been, what would have been the performance of the aircraft on ascent & return?

 

[jb747]

Here another news story re AA300.

American Airlines flight returns to JFK Airport after clipping wing

The FAA says American Airlines flight 300 that was bound from New York to Los Angeles landed safely back at JFK at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday.

abc7ny.com

If you look at the still photo of the wing tip, the winglet looks precariously close to have been sheared off ( although I guess it's stronger than that).

If it had been, what would have been the performance of the aircraft on ascent & return?

I haven't been able to find a track of the flight on flight radar. The fact that they flew away means it wasn't uncontrollable, but they could well have reached the roll limit of the controls. That happens surprisingly often in strong enough crosswinds, or wake.

Loss of the winglet would have had negligible effect. More extensive damage to the wing would have been more interesting, but even loss of aileron control on one side isn't all that bad. From the coughpit, the loss of a winglet probably wouldn't be noticeable, though I expect the phone would be running hot.

 

[tgh]

on Apr 12th 2019 ground tracks reveal the aircraft was dragging its left wing tip for quite some distance on the ground, the ground tracks even suggest the aircraft came close to ground loop. The aircraft and left wing tip became airborne just ahead of the runway sign, the left wing tip impacted the sign, parts of which became embedded in the left wing tip. The wing also sustained according damage to its underside near the wingtip.

 

[jb747]

on Apr 12th 2019 ground tracks reveal the aircraft was dragging its left wing tip for quite some distance on the ground, the ground tracks even suggest the aircraft came close to ground loop. The aircraft and left wing tip became airborne just ahead of the runway sign, the left wing tip impacted the sign, parts of which became embedded in the left wing tip. The wing also sustained according damage to its underside near the wingtip.

Do you have a reference for that? If it was dragging the wingtip prior to liftoff, then my guess will be pilot error. Crosswind, so perhaps feeding in rudder and some aileron. Over did it, or the wind changed and he didn’t remove the inputs quickly enough.

If you are having real control malfunctions on the ground, then that’s cause for an abort at any speed.

 

[tgh]

Do you have a reference for that? If it was dragging the wingtip prior to liftoff, then my guess will be pilot error. Crosswind, so perhaps feeding in rudder and some aileron. Over did it, or the wind changed and he didn’t remove the inputs quickly enough.

If you are having real control malfunctions on the ground, then that’s cause for an abort at any speed.

Sorry should have attributed it … Aviation Herald

 

[Quickstatus]

Apparently the loss of roll control occurred at takeoff rotation, so I suspect they were already committed to the takeoff.

Aeromexico AM2039 (Embraer) also has a wingtip strike/scrape on take off from CUU on 10/4/19

With both METAR suggests crosswinds but not excessively so

Incident Embraer ERJ-170STD (ERJ-170-100) XA-SAC, Wednesday 10 April 2019

Aeroméxico Connect flight AM2039 an Embraer ERJ-170, suffered a wingtip runway strike incident on takeoff from Chihuahua Airport, Mexico. The aircraft rolled left during rotation from ru...

aviation-safety.net

 

[serfty]

Here's an images posted on FyerTalk: (AA 300 hits sign on / about takeoff from JFK and returns (10 Apr 2019) - FlyerTalk Forums)

 

[serfty]

Flightaware track: (American Airlines (AA) #300 ✈ 10-Apr-2019 ✈ KJFK - KLAX ✈ FlightAware)

 

[Himeno]