2025-11 · NASA ASRS report 2306367
B757 flight crew reported stuck auto throttle on initial climb resulted in a temporary loss of control and speed deviation.
I was the PF. On takeoff out of ZZZ when selecting VNAV the right thrust lever tried to retard to idle. I caught it before it got to idle and brought it back to takeoff power. I turned the auto throttles off. The airplane with the Autopilot on was trying to level off. It should not have done this. Simultaneously I realized the left throttle was now jammed at takeoff power. I turned the Autopilot off and climbed away from the terrain while maintaining the assigned course on the SID. We got the plane cleaned up to avoid any structural speed limits. Since the left throttle was jammed and the plane tried to level off; the speed below 10;000 got up to around 280 kts. There was so much going on that; once I had a chance to even look at the speed we were approaching 280. Once we got above the terrain and we felt it was safe to do so. I gave the First Officer the thrust levers and the First Officer was able to use force and got the left throttle unjammed. We then reset the FDs (Flight Directors) and turned the Autopilot back on and it worked normally after that. Once all was back under control and stable I took the throttles back as flying pilot. We never turned the auto throttles back on for obvious safety reasons of the prior jam.I don't have any suggestions at this time in how to prevent this overspeed. I felt like we handled this difficult situation at a dangerous airport very well as a crew. We kept the plane away from terrain which was my primary concern. We did notify ZZZ we had an issue and needed to continue the climb. I did not declare an emergency because we were able to stay on course and climb. Once resolved we notified ZZZ we were back to normal and continued to ZZZ1.
I was the PM out of ZZZ on this leg (night time; high terrain in all quadrants). During the takeoff and upon reaching 1500 AGL; the Captain selected VNAV. Once VNAV was selected; the right throttle retarded rapidly towards idle. The Captain quickly caught it and he had to forcibly push the right throttle back up into TO power. The thrust reduction was enough to require rudder input to maintain track. At this point; the aircraft flight directors were pitching the aircraft low towards terrain (obviously the flight directors shouldn't have been doing this) while the left throttle was locked into TO power and could not be reduced. This pushed our indicated airspeed to roughly 280kts below 10;000 MSL. The Captain then gave me the throttles; while he disconnected the Autothrottles arm switch and the Autopilot in order to maintain the departure SID and continue climbing away from the terrain. We reset both flight directors; which then gave us proper cueing. I informed ATC we may have an issue but would like to continue the SID and continue climbing (we were assigned F190). I had to forcibly retard the left throttle out of the TO power position. It felt as if there was a servo that had to be forced off. Once the throttles were under control; the Captain asked me to reengage the Autopilot. I then informed ATC we no longer had an issue and would like to continue. The Captain elected to maintain manual throttles for the duration of the flight for safety reasons; not knowing what the auto throttles would do if they were reengaged. Recommendation: have the auto throttle system checked to ensure there are no further issues that may put a crew into a bad situation.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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