performance related incidents & accidents
with the Boeing 737
Insufficient performance
To let pilots realize that performance plays a big part in the daily operation, listed below is a summary of incidents and accidents where the performance of the aircraft was insufficient.
Most of these incidents resulted in runway excursions causing damage varying from minor structural to hull losses with fatalities.
Runway excursions
Runway excursions can be divided in veer-offs (aircraft departs the side of the runway) and overruns (aircraft unable to stop before the end of the runway) and is the most frequent accident cause worldwide (3rd most in EASA countries) and rank in 6th place in terms of fatal accidents.
Landing overruns or RTO (Rejected Take Off) overruns might be caused by incorrect performance analysis and/or weight entry errors, possible due to wrong calculations, or FMC (Flight Management Computer) or computerized performance tool entry errors.
Tail strikes
Tailstrikes are situations where the tail of the airplane touches (scrapes) the ground, either on takeoff or during landing. This might be caused by either over-rotation (pitch attitude too high) but can also be caused by trying to rotate or to land at a too low speed. In turn, this too low (rotation VR - or landing reference VREF - ) speed can, similar to runway excursion situations, be caused by incorrect performance analysis and/or weight entry errors, possible due to wrong calculations, or FMC (Flight Management Computer) or computerized performance tool entry errors.
Boeing 737
This summary only gives an overview of recent incidents and accidents where the Boeing 737 was involved and only those where the (near) runway excursion was not (solely) caused by technical failure. Besides these, realize that most of the performance related incidents (think about eg. FMC weight/speed data entry errors and wrong flap selections) do fortunately not turn into incidents or accidents and therefore will not reach the public.
This overview is updated regularly.
Recent performance related incidents and accidents
Date | Occurence | Location | Airline | Aircraft | Facts | Final Report | read more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
06/02/2020 | LANDING OVERRUN INTO VALLEY | Kozhikode (India) rwy 10 | B737-300 | Unstablized approach, landing beyond touchdown zone halfway runway, wet runway. | Yes | ||
21/10/2021 | LANDING OVERRUN | Jayapura (Indonesia) rwy 30 | B737-300 | Light rain, wet runway | No | ||
02/03/2021 | INCORRECT TAKEOFF PERFORMANCE DATA | Lisbon (Portugal) rwy 21 | B737-800 | Intersection takeoff with performance based on full runway length. | No | ||
04/02/2020 | LANDING OVERRUN AND BROKE UP | Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (Turkey) rwy 06 | B737-800 | Very late touchdown after hot and high approach on wet runway in strong tailwind. | No | ||
04/01/2020 | LANDING OVERRUN | Halifax (Canada) rwy 14 | B737-800 | Aircraft landed on runway covered with 100% wet snow with unknown braking action and came to a stop beyond the runway end. | No | ||
02/05/2019 | LANDING OVERRUN ENDING UP IN RIVER | Jacksonville (USA) rwy 10 | B737-800 | Landing with flaps 30, one thrust reverser inop (by MEL), rainstorm, low visibility, 15 kts tailwind on a wet and non-grooved runway, with displaced threshold (net barrier), leaving LDA of 7800ft/2370m. | No | ||
28/04/2019 | LANDING OVERRUN | Shirdi (India) rwy 09 | B737-800 | Runway length 2500m / 8200ft. | No | ||
15/02/2019 | LANDING OVERRUN | Pontianak (Indonesia) rwy 15 | B737-800 | Landing in heavy rain on wet runway. | No | ||
17/01/2019 | LANDING OVERRUN | Chicago O'Hare (USA) rwy 04R | B737-900 | Blowing snow | No | ||
16/01/2019 | LANDING OVERRUN | Omaha (USA) rwy 14R | B737-800 | Freezing drizzle | No | ||
02/01/2019 | LANDING OVERRUN | Entebbe (Uganda) rwy 17 | B737-800 | Landed at Max Landing Weight due to fuel tankering with 1 Thrust Reverser INOP by MEL. | No | ||
05/12/2018 | LANDING OVERRUN | Burbank (USA) rwy 08 | B737-700 | Heavy rain. Aircraft ended up in EMAS (Engineered Material Arresting System). | No |