Just after rotation on Runway 1L at SFO an air carrier A320 encountered jet blast from a B747-400 on an intersecting taxiway. Full control deflection was required to maintain control.

2010-05 · NASA ASRS report 888445

Date: 2010-05 · Aircraft: A320 · Phase: initial_climb

Anomalies: atc-issue-all-types|inflight-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control

Synopsis

Just after rotation on Runway 1L at SFO an air carrier A320 encountered jet blast from a B747-400 on an intersecting taxiway. Full control deflection was required to maintain control.

Narrative

We taxied to our assigned Runway 1L during night operations at SFO. We were then instructed to taxi into position and hold on Runway 1L. Aircraft were taking off on 1L and 1R and were landing and taking off on the 28 runways. We were cleared for takeoff and started our takeoff roll. Approaching V1 we noticed a 747-400 on taxiway F between runway 1L and 1R waiting to cross 1R. We reached VR approximately right behind the 400 and started our rotation. At liftoff our aircraft started to violently buffet left and right several times. I had to use full flight control deflection to maintain control. Once we reached about 50 feet the aircraft became controllable and everything smoothed out. My F/O and I surmised that the 400 was on ground control frequency and had been cleared to cross 1R shortly after we started our takeoff roll. Since we were on different frequencies we were not aware of his status or intentions. That aircraft obviously had to use considerable power to get rolling again and probably wanted to expeditiously cross. We just happened to rotate right into his thrust and barely recovered. Since 1L and 1R are so close together you can imagine how close we were to the rear of that aircraft. This is an extremely dangerous scenario and came close to ending tragically. This definitely needs to be addressed with SFO ground/tower operations.

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

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