A B737-800 Captain rotated 20 KTS below V1 when the autovoice V1 erroneously made the callout and then set down for a short period before rotating again. During the second rotation a tail strike occurred which flight attendants reported but the pilots did not immediately react to the report.
Synopsis
A B737-800 Captain rotated 20 KTS below V1 when the autovoice V1 erroneously made the callout and then set down for a short period before rotating again. During the second rotation a tail strike occurred which flight attendants reported but the pilots did not immediately react to the report.
Narrative
Normal procedures [were] followed through preflight and taxi. All takeoff bug speeds were verified in accordance with normal procedures. I was Captain and pilot flying. During takeoff roll; V1 auto-callout was announced by the aircraft 20 knots early. I eased back on the yoke and began rotation; when I realized I was below rotation speed. There was no pilot monitoring callout for rotation. I eased the nose of the aircraft back to the runway. I then rotated at the normal rotation speed and achieved approximately 10 degrees nose up at about 155-160 KTS. Everything else seemed normal. At 10;000 FT; after the sterile chime; a Flight Attendant asked me about the attempted rotation and set down. Her verbiage was approximately; 'What was that bump?' I explained what had happened and inquired if she heard any scraping. She said no. We pressurized normally and continued to our destination. At 3 hours into the flight (approximately); the flight attendants expressed concern that we had scraped the aircraft on takeoff; but were not sure. Upon receiving this new information; the copilot and I conducted the suspected tail-strike on takeoff portion of the QRH. We landed without declaring an emergency at our scheduled destination. After landing; and upon a post flight inspection; damage to the tail-skid was discovered. Dispatch and Chief Pilot were contacted.
Second reporter narrative
During preflight; I followed all normal procedures. The takeoff data V speeds did not automatically upload to the FMC. I manually inputted the correct V speed from the paperwork into the FMC. I verified they matched prior to pushback. There was no runway change from what I expected prior to pushback to what we received for our takeoff runway. During our takeoff roll; V1 was called early by the auto-voice. I think it was early by about 20 KTS. The Captain started a slow rotation. I knew it was too early; but was unsure of what procedure to advise him to stop rotation. I didn't want to say STOP or ROTATE for fear of confusion. He also recognized the problem shortly after I did and lowered the nose to the ground. Our takeoff then proceeded normally. After 10;000 FT; the Captain spoke with the Flight Attendant and she did not think there was a tail scraping during our takeoff. After about 3 hours more; the Flight Attendants decided we might have scraped some metal on takeoff. We did the QRH procedure for tail strike on takeoff and landed at our destination uneventfully. Because we suspected damage; we conducted a thorough exterior inspection and found some damage on the tail skid plate.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.