1994-06 · NASA ASRS report 275063
MLG FLC STARTS TKOF WITH WRONG FLAP SETTING. TKOF ABORTED.
MY ENTIRE CREW OF 5 ARRIVED AT THE ARPT IN SFO FOR AN ORIGINATOR ABOUT 5 MINS LATER THAN NORMAL DUE TO HOTEL TRANSPORTATION PROBS. UPON ARRIVING THE OPS AGENT ADVISED US THAT A LCL FAA OPS SPECIALIST WAS GOING TO CHK RIDE US AND THAT WE HAD ALREADY DEMANDED ACCESS TO THE JET PRIOR TO MY CREW'S ARR. THE OPS AGENT DESCRIBED HIM AS 'COCKY AND DIFFICULT.' HE WAS. UPON BOARDING THE JET HE WAS ALREADY ABOARD AND BEGAN BY BEING RUDE AND INTIMIDATING TO MY FLT ATTENDANTS. BEING UNHAPPY ABOUT THIS; I QUERIED HIM FOR HIS IDENT AND ASKED WHY HE DIDN'T HAVE IT OUT AND VISIBLE. HE BEGAN TO EXPLAIN THAT HE COULD GO ANYWHERE N THE WORLD WITH HIS IDENT BADGE BUT I COULDN'T WITH MINE BECAUSE HE HAD 34 YRS OF GOV SVC AND I WAS JUST AN AIRLINE PLT. HE ATTEMPTED TO INTIMIDATE ME WITH PWR. I EXPLAINED THAT WE WERE A LITTLE LATE AND ASKED IF WE COULD DISPENSE WITH THE PLEASANTRIES WHILE WE ALL ATTENDED TO OUR PREFLT DUTIES. HE GENERALLY DISRUPTED ALL OF MY CREW DURING THE COURSE OF OUR DUTIES. DURING THE INITIAL COCKPIT SETUP I ALWAYS BRIEF THE CREW OF ANY UNUSUAL OPERATIONAL ASPECTS REGARDING THE EQUIP; WX; NOTAMS; DEP PROCS OR UNUSUAL PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS. DURING MY ATTEMPT TO CHK; AND SET UP THE COCKPIT AND BRIEF MY FO; HE INTERRUPTED ME AT LEAST 3 TIMES ASKING FOR MY LICENSE AND MEDICAL. I ASKED HIM TO WAIT BUT HE WOULDN'T. IT IS DUE TO THIS UNNECESSARY AND BELLIGERENT INTERRUPTION THAT I FAILED TO BRIEF MY FO (IT'S HIS FIRST MONTH ON THE LINE) THAT THE 737-500 IS A FLAPS 5 ONLY TKOF. IT IS UNUSUAL SINCE OUR OTHER JETS (DASH 200/DASH 300) MORE FREQUENTLY USE THE FLAPS 1 FOR TKOF. AFTER THE START I ASKED FOR AND RECEIVED FLAPS 1. MY NEW FO; NO BRIEF; A BELLIGERENT FED; AND THE FACT THAT THE COCKPIT OF THE DASH 500 IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE DASH 300 CONTRIBUTED TO THIS SCENARIO. ON THE TKOF JUST AS WE BROUGHT THE PWR UP AND BEFORE TKOF PWR WAS ATTAINED AND BEFORE THE AIRSPD WAS 'OFF THE PEG' WE GOT A TKOF WARNING HORN. I REJECTED THE TKOF. THE FO ADVISED TWR. WE CLRED THE RWY AND CORRECTED THE FLAP SETTING; RE-RAN THE CHKLIST; TALKED ABOUT RTO'S REGARDING BRAKE COOLING; PAPERWORK; ETC; AND I MADE A PA TO OUR CUSTOMERS WITH THE PARKING BRAKE SET. WE WERE DELAYED 9 MINS FOR FLOW TO PHX. I WOULD LIKE TO NOTE THAT THE DASH 500 WILL FLY WITH FLAPS 1 AND WAS FLT TESTED BY BOEING. FLAPS 1 TKOF DATA IS NOT OWNED BY OUR CARRIER BECAUSE WE DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD BE NECESSARY SINCE THE DASH 500 LIFTS A LOT OF WT ANYWAY WITH ITS LARGE ENGS. MY SUGGESTIONS: 1) MARK ALL DASH 500 FLAP INDICATORS WITH A RED BAND BTWN FLAPS 1 AND FLAPS 5 FOR TKOF THEN ON THE TAXI OUT CHKLIST THE RED BAND WOULD BE A VISUAL CLUE THAT THIS IS A DASH 500 AND REQUIRES FLAPS 5 INSTEAD OF RELYING UPON MEMORY. 2) STOP THIS ADVERSARIAL RELATIONSHIP BTWN ACRS AND FEDS BEFORE SOMEONE GETS HURT. 3) DO NOT ALLOW FEDS TO BADGER A CREW. 4) GIVE CREWS TRAINING AND SUPPORT TO THROW THE FED OFF WITHOUT REPERCUSSIONS IF THE FED BEHAVES THUSLY. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: RPTR STATES THAT THERE HAS BEEN NO FAA FOLLOWUP TO THIS INCIDENT. THE ACI STATED HE SAW NOTHING THAT WAS UNSAFE IN THE FLT BUT RPTR FELT SAFER WITH THE FILING OF THE RPT. THE CHIEF PLT WAS CONSULTED REGARDING THE POSSIBLE MARKING OF THE FLAP INDICATORS. CHIEF PLT FELT THAT BOEING WOULD HAVE TO MAKE THAT CHANGE. RPTR FEELS A SIMPLE RED BAND FOR VERY MINIMAL COST WOULD DO. RPTR IS FOLLOWING UP WITH CHIEF PLT AND WILL TAKE THE MATTER TO THE NEXT STEP HIGHER IF NO SATISFACTION FROM CHIEF PLT. THIS COMPANY HAS SUCH A SERIOUS APCH TO STANDARDIZATION THAT ONE CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE BTWN THE 737-500 OR THE 737-300 ONCE INSIDE THE COCKPIT. THUS THE RED MARK WOULD BE THE ATTN GETTER FOR THE FLAP SETTING.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.