Pilot Error to Blame in PHL Aborted T/O

I'm no airline pilot.. But isn't the point of having a V1 speed dictating whether or not your leaving the ground. It's obviously very easy to sit here and say well.. Why didn't they abort? Looking back at it I'm sure they wish they had.
 
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Hmm, what W&B software does US Airways use? We have Aerodata and the ability to uplink up to 4 runways when the W&B numbers come back. Uplink data and we can scroll to the correct runway numbers and insert. Even if you don't do this step and change only the runway, the MCDU comes with a "check takeoff data" message but the previous runway numbers are still "held" (if I recall correctly).

Another big gotcha that I'm not too fond of is if you shut down an engine after taxi due to delays or a groundstop. The MCDU dumps the ZFW and CG values. If you start the engines and don't put that in and takeoff, things can be interesting.
 
Looks like a rough situation.... a lot of issues come to mind. I'd be interested to see if they keep their jobs.
 

I think they didn't set v-speeds, and then bro rotated too early (thusly, didn't guess the proper v speed), and then when the plane didn't fly how he expected it, he crapped his pants, landed, and performed a tail strike on landing.

The tail strike should have been obvious. If things were screwy in the air because the plane was too slow, then you're obviously going to hit the tail.

Well done, overall.
 
"The documents give varying indications of how high the aircraft climbed; one inspector says 20ft, another 70ft. Regardless, shortly after take-off the captain aborted."


Wow.

We don't know exactly what was in front of them at that point but it would really take a lot of convincing for anyone to reverse the accelerating momentum of a jet passing anywhere from 20' to 70' AGL.
 
Those meds are out of the system long before 60 hrs. Not usual for a "stress test," but they are used in a colonoscopy.

FWIW, about 3 years ago, the FAA announced they want no flying within 60 hrs after taking NyQuil. That's 10x the dosing interval.
 
I think they didn't set v-speeds, and then bro rotated too early (thusly, didn't guess the proper v speed), and then when the plane didn't fly how he expected it, he crapped his pants, landed, and performed a tail strike on landing.

The tail strike should have been obvious. If things were screwy in the air because the plane was too slow, then you're obviously going to hit the tail.

Well done, overall.

Quite excellent analysis Watson.
 
The documents say that, prior to take-off, captain John Powell noticed the aircraft’s primary flight display wrongly indicated 27R as the departure runway.

The co-pilot then correctly inputted[sic] 27L into the multifunction control display unit, but did not enter take-off V-speeds or a “flex temperature”, which allows the aircraft to take-off at lower-than-maximum thrust. The computer needed those values to calculate takeoff power, and required their re-entry after a runway change.

Operationally, what would be the implication of fixing this error? E.g., stop progress towards takeoff for 30 seconds, run a checklist for two minutes, tell Ground you have to pull aside for ten minutes?

I'm guessing the thrust levers were set to the Flex T/O detent without the computer having a value(?), which produced the THR LEVERS NOT SET alert.
 
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