A B747-400 flight crew experienced a STAB GREENBAND EICAS message on takeoff roll. They aborted and company deferred the system. Reporter expressed concern that this is an inappropriate action and that ignoring the EICAS message could lead to safety consequences.

Date: 2009-07 · Aircraft: B747-400 · Phase: takeoff

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-less-severe|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-weight-and-balance

Synopsis

A B747-400 flight crew experienced a STAB GREENBAND EICAS message on takeoff roll. They aborted and company deferred the system. Reporter expressed concern that this is an inappropriate action and that ignoring the EICAS message could lead to safety consequences.

Narrative

Stab Greenband EICAS Message and system being inappropriately ignored. As we began the takeoff roll; the STAB GREENBAND EICAS message illuminated. We aborted the takeoff at low speed and ran the irregular procedure. Adding 4% MAC did not cure the problem so we called Maintenance through Dispatch as directed by the procedure. They immediately deferred the system. I am concerned that the company procedure is to automatically defer this warning system without any further troubleshooting. We might as well not have the STAB GREENBAND system because we always ignore it by deferring it when it alerts. There are documented cases on other airlines where the system was alerting for a real out of balance condition. Fortunately; the flight crew recognized a real weight and balance problem and it was corrected. Here; we just ignore the warning; defer the warning system; and press on. I am concerned that it is possible for a serious out of trim/balance condition could go unaddressed by our simply deferring the warning system every time it alerts. I would suggest that load planning; dispatch; the flight crew; and maintenance be required to confer each time this system alerts an out of balance condition to be absolutely certain that we are not departing with an improperly loaded airplane or with erroneous data provided by load planning. Our current system does not provide for these protections.

More incidents for this aircraft family →

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