The three pilots of flight LA8073, from LATAM Airlines, have been fired over the incident in which the plane hit its tail during takeoff in Milan, according to information from G1. The situation occurred in July this year, and according to the investigation by the Italian aviation authority, the procedure failed due to incorrect data being entered into the on-board computer.
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At the time, the 777-300 aircraft had taken off from Malpensa Airport in Italy bound for Guarulhos in Sao Paulo, but had to continue flying to dispense some fuel and then return to the site. There were no injuries and the passengers were transferred to other flights.
To Itataya, LATAM said it would not comment on layoffs.
Aerodynamics and performance engineer Jefferson Fragoso told Estadão that the situation occurred because the plane took off at a speed lower than necessary for the weight it was carrying.
“(The report) does not mention why these calculations were included. It could have been a calculation error, a wrong entry, or an error in calculating the weight of the plane… The investigation will find out why this happened,” he added. “For this reason, it is not possible to know whether there was pilot error or not.”
What is a tail steak?
The coordinator of the aviation courses at Centro Universitário Una, Kerly Oliveira, explains that the “tail strike”, also known as the tail strike, is a rare, but most common condition that occurs during takeoff, but can also occur during landing.
This happens when the pilot sometimes exaggerates the angle of attack. [posicionamento necessário para o avião levantar voo]He explains that if he lifts it too high, he can touch the tail there again.
According to Oliveira, another factor that can cause tail strike is the aircraft’s unbalance. “In some cases, when the weight of the aircraft, passengers, fuel and cargo is distributed internally, the center of gravity of the aircraft shifts to the rear. In this case, even if the pilot reaches the correct angle for takeoff, the aircraft will bounce back.”
The professor also comments that in the case of the LATAM flight, the airline did the right thing by returning the plane to the original airport. According to him, in such cases it is necessary to understand whether the impact of the tail on the runway caused any structural damage to the plane.
“[O impacto] You may have damaged some of the aircraft's flight control surfaces, and that could have led to a more dangerous situation during the flight. Therefore, the right thing to do would be to abort the takeoff, if you are still able to do so. In this case, there was no way to abort and the pilot took off, but he returned to the airport to do this analysis and remove all doubts about the aircraft structure. It could be just a scratch or a broken part of the aircraft. He said: “Only an examination will tell us.”
