SAFO 06010: Preventing accidents following rejected takeoff (RTO): Pilot Guide

Approved by: AFS-200

SAFOSafety Alert for Operators

U.S. Department SAFO 06-010

of Transportation DATE 7/27/06

Federal Aviation

Administration Flight Standards Service

Washington, DC http://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/airline_operators/airline_safety/safo A SAFO contains important safety information and may include recommended action. SAFO content should be especially valuable to air carriers in meeting their statutory duty to provide service with the highest possible degree of safety in the public interest.

Subject: Preventing accidents following rejected takeoff (RTO): Pilot Guide

Purpose: This SAFO announces the posting of “Pilot Guide to Takeoff Safety” on an FAA public Web site.

Background: Recent media coverage has focused public attention on an accident caused by a runway overrun following a landing. This high-profile accident, media attention, and a public meeting held by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) addressing the accident, may have obscured the fact that accidents associated with rejected takeoff can be far more serious even than those associated with landing.

Discussion: In the landing and overrun that followed (above), one person on the ground was killed and the airplane sustained substantial damage. By contrast, accidents occurring after a pilot’s decision to reject a takeoff have sometimes caused far greater damage - multiple fatalities among passengers and people on the ground and total destruction of airplanes. Since 1992, a comprehensive “Takeoff Safety Training Aid” has been available through the National Technical Information Service, for a fee, in hardcopy and in microfiche. That training aid is the product of a team of industry and Government experts, and its content is as valid today as it was upon initial publication.

Section 2, Pilot Guide to Takeoff Safety, summarizes key information for pilots with respect to RTO. That information is intended to be reflected in training programs for pilots of transport category airplanes. It is available for download free of charge at the following FAA public Web site:

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/afs/afs200/branches/afs21 0/training_aids/

Recommended action: Directors of safety, directors of operations, trainers, and pilots of transport category airplanes should be familiar with the content of this SAFO and the Pilot Guide to Takeoff Safety. They should work together to ensure that the content of the Pilot Guide is provided to pilots during ground training, and is reinforced in flight training, supervised operating experience, line checks, and proficiency checks.