This incidient is a real eye-opener and by no means an " exceptional" occurence. I know of at least one other nearly identical issue resulting in a tailstrike reported at:
http://www.bst.gc.ca/en/reports/air/...9/A02F0069.asp
There was also a similar incident at my present outfit and luckily the CM1 noted the discrepancy (a too low Vr inserted in the MCDU) during the take-off roll and avoided further problems by delaying the rotation until reaching the ballpark figure he had in mind for the given weight.
With the advent of the Less Paper Cockpit concept, are there any airlines moving towards removing the paper take-off speeds bug card, i.e.?
I think it is essential to keep it as it is a good thing to have in the crews' sight who can quickly check the speeds if something is amiss. It will not guard against performance calc errors but would be heplful in case of entry errors in the FMS as it would provide a visual crosscheck at all times.
I look forward to comments/suggestions on the matter.