TUI 787 Rejects Takeoff, Ends Up In Grass, And It Was Totally Avoidable

The Aviation Herald has the story of a strange incident that happened a few days ago, and it just seems like shouldn’t have happened…

TUI Boeing 787 ends up in grass in Melbourne, Florida

This incident occurred on Friday, April 18, 2025, and involves a TUI Boeing 787-9 with the registration code G-TUIN. The aircraft was scheduled to operate flight BY601 from Melbourne, Florida (MLB), to Birmingham, England (BHX).

The aircraft was scheduled to depart at around 6PM, and began it takeoff roll from runway 9R. The crew made the decision to reject the takeoff due to an alarm that went off in the flight deck, and briefly stopped on the runway. The pilots advised that they’d be able to vacate the runway under their own power, and wouldn’t need any assistance.

The crew wanted to taxi back to the holding point of the runway, presumably to run through some checklists, and then attempt a second takeoff. The air traffic controller cleared the jet to vacate the runway, and then taxi via taxiways C and A. However, while vacating the runway via taxiway C and turning onto taxiway A, the aircraft’s right main gear went into the grass.

At this point the crew stopped the aircraft and requested assistance. The flight ended up being canceled, and the aircraft remained on the ground in Melbourne for around 44 hours. It finally departed again around 2PM on April 20, 2025.

How could an incident like this happen?

Nobody was hurt with this incident, and ultimately it was far from the worst aircraft incident we’ve seen in recent times. However, what stands out to me about it is how avoidable this whole situation seems.

Below is the airport diagram for Melbourne. The plane was taking off on runway 9R (left to right, in the below diagram), and the box is in the area where the turn was supposed to take place from taxiway C to taxiway A. As you can see, that’s a very sharp turn, more than 90 degrees.

As someone points out in the comments section of The Aviation Herald story:

That right turn from C to A (to return to Runway 09R) is over 90 degrees — it’s 110. While there is a taxi line painted for that turn, the pavement has no “fillet” on that side to handle wider aircraft (for example, see the left turn, same place). The A/FD does not prohibit this right turn, but I believe the controller is supposed to clear only what the aircraft can safely do. Maybe the controller thought the tires would deflate, and was focused on getting the aircraft off the runway.

So this is one of those situations where the charts that the pilots were referencing perhaps didn’t explicitly prohibit this turn. At the same time, you’d think the controller wouldn’t have given the instruction to make that turn. Perhaps some factors here were that the airport doesn’t get many wide body aircraft (so it’s not something the controller has to think about often), and perhaps the controller was so focused on the rejected takeoff and getting the plane off the runway, that they forgot about that detail.

Bottom line

A TUI Boeing 787 had a bit of an adventure after rejecting its takeoff during a departure from Melbourne, Florida. Funny enough, the rejected takeoff didn’t cause an issue, but instead, the taxiing after that was what created problems.

The aircraft made a turn at an intersection it shouldn’t have, given the angle of the turn, plus the size of the aircraft. Yet there are no published restrictions here regarding the turn, so presumably that’s something the controller should’ve issued a warning about.

What do you make of this strange TUI 787 incident?