Incident
On the day of the event, the aircraft departed from Brussels Airport at 15:00 UTC. During the rotation phase, the crew heard an abnormal noise and encountered difficulties in getting the aircraft airborne. After adjusting engine power, the aircraft successfully took off. Witnesses on the ground observed two white clouds appearing successively under the tail of the aircraft during rotation, followed by flames. An inspection of the runway revealed that parts had separated from the aircraft, including the APU access door. The crew proceeded to dump excess fuel and landed back at Brussels Airport at 16:20 UTC. A subsequent ground inspection found that large portions of the underside skin of the tail section were missing.
Preliminary Observations
No further details about the aircraft type, registration, number of engines, operator, occupants, or injuries were provided. The time of day was daylight (15:00 UTC). Weather conditions and ATC involvement were not mentioned. The damage was limited to the tail section underside skin and the APU access door. The aircraft landed safely without further incident.
Probable Cause
The accident was caused by an inadequate take-off performance calculation, due to wrong gross weight data input error in the software used for the computation of the takeoff performance parameters and the failure to comply with the operator’s SOP for checking the validity of the data. Contributing factor(s): - Inadequate pairing of crew members with low experience. - Lack of distraction management.