While this obviously pales in comparison to the Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 accident we just saw, a United Boeing 737 had a very strange incident, whereby the pilots tried to take off on the edge of the runway. After rejecting the takeoff, the pilots didn’t even have the aircraft inspected, but just headed right back…
Continue reading: United 737 Tries To Take Off On Runway Edge, Pilots Pretend Nothing Happened
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
lmao idk if this is supposed to be funny or not but this is objectively hilarious
Flight ought to have been cancelled , and the pax taken to a tent and cot area to wait for inspection . Cannot be too careful .
They did the same thing as the AA 777 years ago that entered a runway DL was taking off on at JFK. By continuing the flight, the CVR will be overwritten and they now control the narrative of what happened on the flight deck.Mistakes of this magnitude usually require a crew to return to the gate and pull the CVR circuit breaker to preserve data. But let’s be honest, do you think someone is going to preserve potentially incriminating evidence against themselves? No. Example like this are why the 25hr rule for CVR recordings is important.
Meh, at least they got that '100 years Magnolia vanilla pudding' up-front, amirite?
The pilots may not have realized that they had knocked out runway lights although they might have heard some unusual noises, likely from the mains rather than the nose wheel.
The question, then, was the runway taken out of service when the next aircraft realized that runway lights were missing?
Does anyone else worry about United's safety culture? Between occasional near misses like this one, and constant maintenance issues, they make me uneasy.
Was on this flight. Pilot said something was on the runway which is why we rejected. Super concerning. Rest of the flight was uneventful.
No one has taken Tim out of service.
Even when we all notice light bulbs are missing in his mind.
Also a potentially unusual United flight 786 from O'Hare on Sunday, 3/22 - flight from ORD to BTV, aborted landing right before touchdown for unclear reasons, started flying to BDL, landed in Albany instead, let some passengers off, flew back to BTV and landed in basically the same conditions. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K?
Small note on the runway edge light colors. At my airport and, as far as I’m aware ANY instrument runway, the runway edge lights are white all the way from the line-up/approach end, up until the last 2,000 feet remaining, where they then turn yellow. So had they lined up full length, they’d have seen all white as well. The lenses are bi-directional so will be a different color based on which direction you are facing them. So those edge lights would have been white all the way until the final 2,000 feet remaining.
"Something" was on the runway... yeah, the runway lights. Could it be the pilots were actually not aware that they were aligned wrong, and actually believed "something" was on the runway?
that is correct. And you wouldn't be starting a takeoff roll in the last 2000 feet.
Ben's point is valid that not being in the middle of 3 rows of white lights should be concerning
alert gets it.
Eskimo, as usual doesn't.
(this is when you are supposed to say that "if it was automated, this wouldn't have happened)
Yes, agreed it is concerning. Just pointing out that the comment about the first couple thousand feet having yellow edge lights as a “caution” is not correct. Seems like these pilots could have made the exact same error had they lined up full length as well.
Honestly believe they likely did not realize which frankly makes it even more concerning. We were sat in FC so probably did not feel as much of the impact of lights hitting the landing gear as we were quite far in front of the main gear.
"Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen, it's NOT going to happen!"
In your case, it's "tent and cot."
You can keep saying it, but it's not going to become a thing, no matter how hard you try.
This is the reason why the unions are fighting against proposed longer CVR recordings.
Ben, your article indicates that the edge lights are designed to NOT break, but indeed they are required to be frangible no more than 3” if I recall properly from the surface since they’re certainly within the “object free area” (OFA) of the runway. Any object that is fixed or moveable that is within the OFA while the runway is open and in use must be frangible / break off when struck by a wayward aircraft or vehicle on the runway. This is required for part 139 commercial service airports in the US and I’m sure meets an ICAO standard too.