A disaster that didn't happen

February 24, 2011 · By Paul Burger

An EVA Air Boeing 747-45EM taking off from runway 36L at Amsterdam - Schiphol, Netherlands. The great timing and angle just makes this shot, and the size of the 747, look surreal. The distance to the fence was 145 meters (475ft)...

This is an amazing picture of a disaster that didn't happen. From the smallest airplane to the largest, weight & balance calculations are a critical part of flight safety.

From the looks of this 747, the weight was within the CG envelope, but if they'd have added one more 'marshmallow' to each snack tray, this BIRD might not have cleared the fence!

I wonder if anyone computed the takeoff distance prior to the trip.

A disaster that didn't happen

Tags: Advocates for Aviation Safety

1 response so far ↓

1 Syed Mohammad Husain // Mar 6, 2011 at 11:13 PM

While waiting at Dubai for our airline's 747 on a scheduled flight which we had to take to Frankfurt after positioning earlier, the tail scrapped on the runway due to high attitude on touchdown of the arrival aircraft. From then on the first officer was to make calls of attitude exceeding 4 degrees in the cockpit at touchdown.
Karachi Airport has runway 25R, 10500 feet long. On departures, the 747 aircraft used to lift off right at the very end and likewise the B707 freighter loaded to capacity with a MTOGW 0f 331600 lbs, had to be eased off the runway.

Advocates for Aviation Safety Foundation, Inc.