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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
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