PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Air France high speed RTO due to missing baggage
Old 24th Apr 2017, 13:40
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suninmyeyes
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Many years ago at Chicago taking off in a 747 ATC ordered us to stop at about 140 knots. My Captain who was handling pilot did not recognise the call was for us (our callsign bore no relation to our flight number) and by the time I had said "that was for us" it was too late. As we were rotating we could see the reason for the call was a helicopter that was slightly closer than you would like but not close enough to take evasive action for and we climbed away normally. Had we rejected takeoff we would have had overheated brakes, flat tyres, a blocked runway or taxiway and 24 hours extra at the hotel. We were very glad we had not rejected.

Pax Britanica gave his opinion that as a passenger he would rather abort takeoff even if it risked an evacuation if there were certain events that included a nearby helicopter. I respect your right to your opinion but if you were an airline pilot approaching V1 you would have a very different view. Years ago the Trident crews were not allowed to reject the takeoff for an APU fire below V1.

A couple of interesting rejected takeoffs below

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wj8UPEfO1Oo

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SweTB8I9V2E
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