An A320 flight crew rejected their takeoff above 80 KTS when the Captain's Air Speed Indicator stayed pegged at zero.

2009-09 · NASA ASRS report 851771

Date: 2009-09 · Aircraft: A320 · Phase: takeoff

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical

Synopsis

An A320 flight crew rejected their takeoff above 80 KTS when the Captain's Air Speed Indicator stayed pegged at zero.

Narrative

I was the pilot flying. As we accelerated through 80 KTS everything appeared normal in the cockpit. Other than the usual look at instruments; I was outside. At approximately 100 KTS I looked down at my PFD at saw my airspeed pegged at zero. At this point I decided to abort the takeoff. There was plenty of runway in front of us and I elected to press on the brakes to minimize maximum braking. The First Officer alerted Tower of our abort and they asked a couple questions concerning the reason. I continued to taxi at a slow speed to a turnoff and asked the First Officer to tell the Flight Attendants to remain seated. We cleared the runway. I taxied slowly while the First Officer did the ECAM. At this point we had a F/CTL ELAC 1 PITCH FAULT. We also had an Auto Throttle and Hot Brake ECAM. I called the Tower and asked them to look and make sure there was no smoke coming from the brakes. They stated the emergency vehicles were on the way.I started the APU so I could shut down engine two to minimize brake usage. I asked the First Officer to make an announcement to the passengers to not be alarmed about the vehicles and their purpose for being there. Another aircraft crew stated we had no smoke coming from the airplane. I felt at this point it was safe to continue a taxi slowly to the gate. The brake temperature at its highest point was 795 on the left and 510 on the right. There was no hesitation on my part to abort this takeoff. I had no idea what the First Officer saw on his side at that time and felt the safest action was to stop the aircraft.During debrief; the First Officer stated he heard me say 'abort' and did not know what it was for. During the abort I stated 'No airspeed indication'; it was at this point he looked over and saw mine was pegged at the bottom. The jumpseater stated he also saw the First Officer's indication around 100 KTS and mine at 'zero.' The aircraft just came from the hangar due to a bird strike. It is possible this had something to do with the bird strike. I did not specifically ask for the emergency trucks to be sent. In the future I will always include in my brief that this will be done in any high speed abort. I felt I was well prepared for the abort for two reasons: This was my first trip back from a PTO and I always go over the abort procedure in my mind as I am taking the runway for takeoff.

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

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