2007-04 · NASA ASRS report 735620
A C182 PILOT TOOK OFF WITH THE TOW BAR STILL ATTACHED.
STARTING ABOUT XA20 HRS; I FLEW FOR ALMOST 3 HRS. WE LANDED; TOOK A SHORT BREAK AND GOT FULL FUEL. JUST AS I WAS SIGNING THE FUEL RECEIPT; THEY CALLED FOR US TO TAKE OFF. WE DEPARTED AND FLEW AGAIN FOR ABOUT 2 HRS. WE RETURNED TO THE OFFICE. I TAXIED TO THE E SIDE OF THE HANGAR AND PARKED. I GOT OUT AND WAS GOING TO PUSH THE ACFT BACK OUT OF THE WAY OF THE HELI TAXI RTE. I ATTACHED THE TOW BAR. THE 2 DETECTIVES WITH ME WERE STILL UNLOADING FROM THE ACFT. I WAITED FOR THEM TO FINISH UNLOADING. WE GOT CALLED TO TAKE OFF AGAIN. I RAN INTO THE HANGAR TO USE THE BATHROOM. AFTER USING THE BATHROOM; I HURRIED OUT THE E DOOR AND WALKED AROUND THE FRONT OF THE AIRPLANE. THE ACFT WAS FACING SE; WHICH PUT THE FRONT OF THE ACFT IN THE SHADOW OF THE ONLY LIGHT ON THAT SIDE OF THE HANGAR. I GOT IN THE L SIDE; AND THE 2 DETECTIVES GOT INTO THE AIRPLANE ON THE R SIDE. THEY DID NOT DO ANY WALKAROUND. ONCE EVERYONE WAS BACK IN WITH SEATBELTS ON; I STARTED THE ACFT. I PULLED FORWARD ONTO THE RAMP; AND DID A RUN-UP. I CALLED GND FOR A TAXI TO RWY 28R. HE CLRED ME TO TAXI; BUT OFFERED RWY 10L BECAUSE WINDS WERE ABOUT 4 KTS FROM THE S. I ACCEPTED HIS OFFER AND TAXIED TO RWY 10L. I SWITCHED TO TWR AND WE WERE CLRED FOR TKOF. I APPLIED FULL THROTTLE AND EVERYTHING FELT NORMAL. AS WE ROTATED; I HEARD A THUMP AND FELT THE SAME IN THE RUDDER PEDALS. AS WE CLBED OUT; EVERYTHING FELT FINE. I ADVISED THE TWR OF WHAT JUST HAPPENED. HE ACKNOWLEDGED MY TFC AND OFFERED WHATEVER ASSISTANCE I NEEDED. I ASKED TO DO A FLY-BY ON THE TWR TO CHK MY NOSE GEAR. HE SAID HE WOULD DO THAT. I MADE SEVERAL PASSES ON THE TWR. THE TWR CTLR USED A LIGHT TO TRY AND SEE THE NOSE GEAR. ON ABOUT THE THIRD PASS; HE SAID IT LOOKED LIKE SOMETHING WAS HANGING FROM THE NOSE GEAR; 'LIKE A T-BAR.' I THEN REALIZED I HAD ATTACHED THE TOW BAR AND DIDN'T REMOVE IT BEFORE WE DEPARTED. I ADVISED I KNEW WHAT THE PROB WAS; AND TOLD THE TWR I WAS INBOUND TO LAND AND WOULD LAND LONG ON RWY 28R. I MADE MY APCH TO RWY 28R AND LANDED LONG. I USED FULL FLAPS (40 DEGS) AND USED THE SOFT FIELD TECHNIQUE. I FELT; THROUGH THE PEDALS; THE TOW BAR DRAG ON THE GND WHEN THE NOSE GEAR CAME DOWN. WHEN THE TOW BAR TOUCHED THE GND; IT DRAGGED BEHIND THE NOSE GEAR. I TAXIED TO THE OFFICE AND PARKED THE AIRPLANE ON THE E SIDE OF THE HANGAR. WE FOUND THE TOW BAR BEHIND THE NOSE GEAR. THE BAR WAS SLIGHTLY BENT. WE FOUND SOME SMALL NICKS IN THE PROP AND A SCRAPE ON THE BELLY; AFT OF THE NOSE GEAR. THIS INCIDENT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED BY A COMPLETE WALKAROUND BEFORE THE DEP.
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.