FA50 CAPT LOST ACFT CTL IN A STRONG GUSTY XWIND. THE L MAIN LNDG GEAR DEPARTED THE RWY; AND WHEN USING AILERONS TO ATTEMPT TO GET THE GEAR BACK ON THE RWY; THE R WINGTIP SCRAPED THE RWY.

2003-11 · NASA ASRS report 601534

Date: 2003-11 · Aircraft: Falcon 50 · Phase: takeoff

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|ground-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control|ground-excursion-runway|inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence

Synopsis

FA50 CAPT LOST ACFT CTL IN A STRONG GUSTY XWIND. THE L MAIN LNDG GEAR DEPARTED THE RWY; AND WHEN USING AILERONS TO ATTEMPT TO GET THE GEAR BACK ON THE RWY; THE R WINGTIP SCRAPED THE RWY.

Narrative

DURING THE TKOF PHASE OF FLT AT APPROX 115 KTS; 4 KTS ABOVE V1; THE ACFT VEERED L. THE L MAIN WHEELS WENT OFF THE RWY. THE CAPT APPLIED R AILERON TO ASSIST IN GETTING THE ACFT BACK ON THE RWY AND IN DOING SO THE R WINGTIP TOUCHED THE GND. THE TKOF WAS CONTINUED AND RETURN FOR AN UNEVENTFUL NORMAL LNDG. THE CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WAS THE WIND 280 DEGS AT 15 KTS GUSTING 34 KTS. THE DEP RWY WAS RWY 36. THE ACFT WAS APPARENTLY HIT BY A GUST OF WIND AT A CRITICAL PHASE OF THE TKOF BTWN V1 AND V2. THERE WAS NO DIRECTIONAL CTL PROBS LNDG WITH THE SAME RPTED WIND 8 MINS LATER. SUPPLEMENTAL INFO FROM ACN 601254: THE VMC WX AT THE TIME OF DEP WAS BROADCAST (VIA ATIS) TO BE 4000 FT OVCST; 4 MI VISIBILITY; AND WINDS 280 DEGS AT 15 KTS; GUSTING 34 KTS. DUE TO THE STRONG XWIND; I BRIEFED THE SIC DURING TAXI THAT I WOULD BE STAYING ON THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING LONGER THAN THE STANDARD 80 KTS (AS PER THE COMPANY SOPS). I ALSO ASKED HIM TO HOLD IN APPROPRIATE L AILERON TO COUNTERACT THE STRONG XWIND COMPONENT FROM THE L SIDE OF THE AIRPLANE. WHILE TAKING OFF ON RWY 36 AT ZZZ AT XA18 EST; I STAYED ON THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING UNTIL APPROX 100 KTS AS RECOMMENDED IN THE ACFT FLT MANUAL (AFM). AS SOON AS I CAME OFF OF THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING AND TRANSITIONED TO USING THE RUDDER FOR DIRECTIONAL CTL; THE AIRPLANE STARTED TO DRIFT TOWARD THE L SIDE OF THE RWY. I IMMEDIATELY APPLIED FULL R RUDDER TO CORRECT FOR THE L DRIFT. HOWEVER; THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED TO GO TOWARD THE L EDGE OF THE RWY AND DEPARTED FROM THE PAVED RWY SURFACE. BY THIS TIME; WE WERE ABOVE OUR V1 SPD OF 111 KTS; SO AN ABORTED TKOF WAS NOT AN OPTION (OUR BALANCED FIELD LENGTH FOR OUR TKOF WT WAS 4400 FT AND RWY 36 AT ZZZ IS 5000 FT LONG). IN ADDITION; THE ACFT WAS NOW HEADING TOWARD THE LARGE SIGN INDICATING 2000 FT OF RWY REMAINING; SO I INSTINCTIVELY USED R AILERON TO RAISE L WING TO AVOID THE SIGN AND STEER BACK TOWARD THE RWY. THE AILERON INPUT APPARENTLY WORKED; AS WE MISSED THE SIGN AND THE AIRPLANE STARTED TO CORRECT TO THE R AND BACK TOWARD THE RWY. HOWEVER; IN DOING SO (AND UNKNOWN TO THE CREW); THE R WINGTIP BARELY CONTACTED THE PAVED RWY SURFACE. IN THE MEANTIME; WE HAD REACHED OUR ROTATION SPD OF 122 KTS; SO I CONTINUED WITH THE TKOF. AFTER TKOF; THE ZZZ CTL TWR RPTED THAT THEY HAD SEEN SPARKS ON THE RWY AS WE DEPARTED. WE ELECTED TO RETURN TO THE ZZZ ARPT TO ACCESS THE CONDITION OF THE ACFT. THE ACFT WAS PERFORMING NORMALLY AND THERE WAS NO NOTICEABLE CHANGE IN CONTROLLABILITY AT ANY TIME DURING THE FLT. WE THEN PERFORMED A NORMAL AND UNEVENTFUL SMOOTH LNDG. UPON INSPECTION AFTER SHUTDOWN; IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT THE R MAIN LNDG GEAR DOOR HAD HIT A RWY LIGHT; THAT THE L WING FLAP FAIRING HAD HIT A TXWY SIGN; AND THAT THE R WINGTIP HAD SCRAPPED THE RWY. I DID NOT FEEL ANY OF THE IMPACTS AND WAS VERY SURPRISED AT THE DAMAGE TO THE AIRPLANE. THERE WERE NO INJURIES TO EITHER CREW MEMBER. IN HINDSIGHT; IF I HAD ABORTED THE TKOF AS SOON AS I WAS CERTAIN THAT DIRECTIONAL CTL WAS LOST; I MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO STOP THE ACFT ON THE RWY. HOWEVER; THE AIRPLANE WAS ABOVE THE MANUFACTURER'S MAX SPD FOR NOSEWHEEL STEERING (AS PER THE AFM) AND THE RUDDER ALONE WAS INSUFFICIENT TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CTL. IN ADDITION; THE RUDDER WOULD HAVE BECOME EVEN LESS EFFECTIVE AS THE AIRPLANE DECELERATED AND WE MAY HAVE BEEN OFF THE RWY EDGE BY THE TIME THE AIRPLANE WAS ONCE AGAIN UNDER THE MAX NOSEWHEEL STEERING SPD OF 100 KTS. THEREFORE; AN ABORT AT THAT SPD MAY HAVE AGGRAVATED THE SIT AND CAUSED EVEN MORE DAMAGE TO THE ACFT. AS IT WAS; THE ACFT WAS DETERMINED TO NOT HAVE SUFFERED DAMAGE AND THEREFORE THE EVENT CANNOT BE DESCRIBED AS AN ACFT ACCIDENT.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

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.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

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.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

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.

Where does the route data come from?

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.