
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
13/02/2017 | TAILSTRIKE ON GO-AROUND | Bariloche (Argentina) rwy 29 | B737-800 | Unstabilized approach, higher than idle thrust on touchdown without flare (+3.08G), go-around. | No | ||
07/02/2017 | TAILSTRIKE ON DEPARTURE | Warsaw Modlin (Poland) rwy 08 | B737-800 | No | |||
01/02/2017 | LANDING VEER OFF | Yogyakarta (Indonesia) rwy 09 | B737-800 | Heavy rain, wet runway (2200m / 7210ft) | No | ||
26/01/2017 | TAILSTRIKE ON DEPARTURE | Istanbul (Turkey) rwy 05 | B737-800 | No | |||
22/01/2017 | TAILSTRIKE ON LANDING | Dhaka (Bangladesh) rwy 14 | B737-800 | Thrust not idle upon touchdown, bounce, 2nd touchdown +2.79G | No | ||
12/01/2017 | TAILSTRIKE ON DEPARTURE | Moscow Vnukovo (Russia) rwy 06 | B737-900 | No | |||
27/12/2016 | REJECTED TAKEOFF RUNWAY EXCURSION | Goa (India) rwy 26 | B737-800 | TO/GA was pressed without both engined stabilized at the prescribed 40% N1 (No2 engine 28% N1). | No | ||
07/12/2016 | LANDING OVERRUN | Murmansk (Russia) rwy 31 | B737-500 | Reported braking action by ATC insufficient / insuffiecient use of reverse thrust / improper landing distance assessment. | No | ||
06/12/2016 | TEMPORARY RUNWAY EXCURSION ON LANDING | Darwin (Australia) rwy 29 | B737-800 | Gusty crosswind, heavy rain, darkness, limited visual cues, touchdown 21m right of (unlighted) centerline | No | ||
27/10/2016 | LANDING OVERRUN | New York La Guardia (USA) rwy 22 | B737-700 | High flare / late idle thrust / late touchdown / late speedbrake / wet rwy (2134m / 7000ft). | No | ||
20/02/2016 | LANDING OVERRUN | Surabaya (Indonesia) rwy 10 | B737-900 | Prolong touchdown / late spoiler deployment / thrust levers not at idle / late brake application / heavy rain / wet runway (3000m / 9845ft). | No | ||
16/01/2016 | LANDING OVERRUN | Kiev (Russia) rwy 08 | B737-300 | Slippery runway (2160m / 7080ft), tailwind, shortcomings in crewtraining regarding landing distance calculations, Vref planned too high. | No |