Video Of Near Disaster For A Royal Air Maroc 737 On Takeoff

I saw a video on FB about this. The person believes this was due to the plane that landed on the other runway. Not an intersecting one but on close to a 90 degree angle, and left of the Air Maroc's runway. It landed right to left relative to it. This likely lead to its right wingtip vortex growing and settling until it was on the Air Maroc's runway. Its spin would've been in the direction of the Air Maroc's travel, leading to a momentary decrease in airspeed. So they waited until they'd passed that point and their speed got back up to Vr, and then took off uneventfully. They're fortunate that they had enough runway to do that.

I do see that it looks like he rotated before the aircraft was ready to fly, but there is an alarm in the airplane that will alert the crew to improper takeoff configuration. That should have gone off after moving the power levers above a certain point when they started the takeoff roll. There is also the possibility that the flap override switch was selected. The crew may have been doing a reduced flap setting takeoff. They may have been empty and where ferrying the aircraft to another location for maintenance. There are a fair amount of unknowns here. Aircraft can execute reduced flap landings and takeoffs when it’s needex and calculated to be safe.

The first thing I noticed was the A330 on approach to runway 7R crossing directly ahead of the 737. Using the FAA's ATC training handbooks and other sources, a simple diagram showing wingtip vortices spreading above and along runway 18 makes it easy to see the true cause of this event. The 737 encountered the lower half of both vortices during the takeoff roll. Such an encounter would emulate a microburst on the surface. Indicated airspeed would read high then drop . Only after clearing the second vortex would airspeed rise and indicate normally. Bottom line is the 737 departed with insufficient delay after the A330 passed. EDDF airport configuration is a major contributor to this incident. See poster Jon Nevin's link to AVHerald for additional information.

Tom says: August 26, 2016 at 4:10 pm @Mike – Even if you were right, the FA still wouldn’t believe you and actually go talk to the pilots. It is best to not worry about these things since you ultimately have no control. Mike did jump the gun a bit...flaps are routinely extended during taxi. That said, I would encourage any passenger who seems something that bothers them to speak up. Two cases in point: A passenger boarding the Aloha 737 that shed its roof noted a rip in the fuselage skin, but was afraid to say anything. Had she done so, the death of the FA and injuries to many could have been avoided. Also, in June, 1979, a Concorde blew one or more tires on takeoff, and the wing suffered significant damage. A passenger tried to alert the crew, who basically blew him off at first. He insisted, and eventually a cockpit crew member appeared. When the alert passenger actually pulled the pilot's head over to get the right angle to see the damage, that pilot said, "Mon dieu" at the size of the hole, and they went back to land post-haste.

Seems this guy tried to take off without flaps and pulled up thinking he had reached the correct VR. Usually have to reach a faster speed which means longer runway. His copilot must of missed an item on his takeoff checklist. He's lucky he had plenty of runway.