Scramble to ‘pull the plug’ after 2 Alaska tails bump runway
On the morning of Jan. 26, as two Alaska Airlines flights from Seattle to Hawaii lifted off six minutes apart, the pilots each felt a slight bump and the flight attendants at the back of the cabin heard a scraping noise. As the noses of both Boeing 737s lifted skyward on takeoff, their tails scraped the runway. Both planes circled back immediately and landed again at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Tail strikes happen occasionally in aviation, but two in quick succession were not normal. Bret Peyton, Alaska’s on-duty director of operations, immediately ordered no more planes to take off across the airline’s network. All Alaska flights not already airborne were stopped nationwide. “At that point, two in a row like that, that’s when I said, ‘No, we’re done,’” said Peyton. “That’s when I stopped things.” For Peyton, who was an Air Force lieutenant colonel, that decisive call was a heart-racing moment. But few travelers, apart from the passengers aboard the two Hawaii flights who had to wait several hours to continue their journey, would have noticed anything amiss. The stoppage lasted just 22 minutes. Alaska’s flight operations staff quickly realized that a software bug was sending bad takeoff weight data to its crews. They immediately figured out a workaround and normal flying resumed. Last Tuesday, following a series of recent safety incidents and dangerous close calls around the U.S. aviation system, acting Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Billy Nolen wrote a “call to action” letter warning that the US system’s stellar safety record mustn’t be taken for granted. The Jan. 26 tail strikes at Sea-Tac were not close calls; the passengers on those Hawaii flights were never in danger. Still, the mishaps point to the need for more vigilance by pilots in checking automated data.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-02-21/oneworld/scramble-to-2018pull-the-plug2019-after-2-alaska-tails-bump-runway
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
Scramble to ‘pull the plug’ after 2 Alaska tails bump runway
On the morning of Jan. 26, as two Alaska Airlines flights from Seattle to Hawaii lifted off six minutes apart, the pilots each felt a slight bump and the flight attendants at the back of the cabin heard a scraping noise. As the noses of both Boeing 737s lifted skyward on takeoff, their tails scraped the runway. Both planes circled back immediately and landed again at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Tail strikes happen occasionally in aviation, but two in quick succession were not normal. Bret Peyton, Alaska’s on-duty director of operations, immediately ordered no more planes to take off across the airline’s network. All Alaska flights not already airborne were stopped nationwide. “At that point, two in a row like that, that’s when I said, ‘No, we’re done,’” said Peyton. “That’s when I stopped things.” For Peyton, who was an Air Force lieutenant colonel, that decisive call was a heart-racing moment. But few travelers, apart from the passengers aboard the two Hawaii flights who had to wait several hours to continue their journey, would have noticed anything amiss. The stoppage lasted just 22 minutes. Alaska’s flight operations staff quickly realized that a software bug was sending bad takeoff weight data to its crews. They immediately figured out a workaround and normal flying resumed. Last Tuesday, following a series of recent safety incidents and dangerous close calls around the U.S. aviation system, acting Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Billy Nolen wrote a “call to action” letter warning that the US system’s stellar safety record mustn’t be taken for granted. The Jan. 26 tail strikes at Sea-Tac were not close calls; the passengers on those Hawaii flights were never in danger. Still, the mishaps point to the need for more vigilance by pilots in checking automated data.<br/>
