Passengers on a commercial flight last Thursday, May 19, went through a moment of apprehension when they saw their plane fully descend onto the grass during the takeoff roll and then return to the runway.
According to the Aviation Herald, the aircraft involved was a Boeing 737800, registration N917NN, operated by American Airlines. Out of curiosity, this is the aircraft sporting the AirCal livery, a company that was acquired by American in 1987.
The Boeing 737 involved in the incident Image: Venkat Mangudi / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The jet was scheduled to depart Charlotte Airport for Miami on flight AA775 with 172 passengers and 6 crew members. However, as he accelerated for takeoff from Charlotte’s runway 18L, there was a runway deviation incident.
The pilots are known to have refused takeoff at low speed, still about 40 knots (74 km/h) relative to the ground, and the aircraft momentarily veered to the left until it exited the paved area of the runway, but it gives no official information as to whether the takeoff refusal was because the Boeing 737 began to deviate, or if it deviated after the refusal began.
However, data from the FlightRadar24 platform shows that the aircraft would first have deviated to the right at the beginning of the acceleration and only then to the left until exiting the runway, hence the hypothesis of a refusal of takeoff due to the deviation trajectory seems the more likely.
Image: FlightRadar24
The plane rolled on the grass for a few moments until the pilots managed to bring it back to the surface of the runway. After the incident, they informed air traffic control that they did not need any help, but had to leave the runway and return to the apron.
Several aircraft on final approaches to runway 18L had to fly around as a result of the incident until the runway was inspected to ensure it was safe for operation.
The plane in the incident remains on the ground in Charlotte nearly 48 hours after being refused takeoff at the time of this writing, but no information has yet been released about damage or the cause of the incident.