1988-05 · NASA ASRS report 87833
ACR LTT ABORTED TKOF ACCOUNT NO AIRSPEED INDICATIONS. WHEN ACI MET ACFT FOUND ACFT HAD WRONG REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE.
THIS IS ONE OF THOSE ODD SITUATIONS. WHEN THE PRECEDING CREW LANDED THEY REPORTED THE F/O ALTIMETER WAS OUT OF TOLERANCE. IT WAS REPLACED BY MAINT AND PRONOUNCED FIXED; THE FLT DELAYED 30 MINUTES. ON TKOF ROLL AT ORD; NO AIRSPEED INDICATION WAS OBSERVED ON EITHER SIDE AND TKOF WAS ABORTED. THE TWR WAS INFORMED AS TO THE REASON. BACK AT THE GATE; IT WAS DETERMINED THAT MAINT HAD LEFT DRAIN VALVES OPEN. THEY WERE CLOSED AND OFF WE WENT TO CWA; MKE AND BACK. UPON RETURN WE WERE MET BY FAA INSPECTORS WHO MADE COPIES OF THE LOG SHEETS. IN THE COURSE OF INSPECTING THE AIRPLANE; ONE OF THE INSPECTORS OBSERVED THAT OUR AIRPLANE; CDFXY; HAD THE REGISTRATION FOR CDEXY DISPLAYED ON THE LEFT CENTER BULKHEAD. THE ACFT WAS GNDED; PASSENGERS UNLOADED. WHEN CDEXY ARRIVED LATER; IT HAD THE REGISTRATION FOR OUR AIRPLANE. THEY WERE SWITCHED TO THE PROPER PLANES (FAA PRESENT) AND WE WERE ON OUR WAY. THE POINT IS THAT FOR AN AIRLINE TO RUN EFFICIENTLY THERE HAS TO BE DIVISION OF LABOR AND EVERYONE HAS TO DO THEIR JOB. OUR PLANES ARE PREFLTED BY MAINT EVERY 72 HOURS AND MAINT IS SUPPOSED TO CHECK THE PAPERWORK AT THAT TIME. THE REGISTRATION IS VISIBLE ON THE CAPT'S SIDE AND ON THIS OCCASION; AS USUAL; HE CONFIRMED THAT THERE WAS A REGISTRATION PRESENT BUT I KNOW OF NO ONE WHO PRESSES THEIR NOSE TO THE GLASS TO READ THE 'N' NUMBER ON IT. IT'S ALMOST BEYOND BELIEF THAT A MAINT PERSON WOULD PUT THE WRONG REGISTRATION ON BOARD BUT YET HERE IT HAPPENED. THERE'S NO TELLING HOW LONG IT WAS LIKE THAT OR HOW MANY CREWS FLEW THOSE PLANES BEFORE THIS WAS DISCOVERED. IN THE FUTURE; I WILL PERSONALLY READ THE AIRPLANE NUMBER ON THE REGISTRATION.
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.