Runway incursions proceed to make the news as one other incident has taken place – this time at Mexico City International Airport. Labeled as an ‘operational error,’ it seems that a Viva Aerobus A321 was mistakenly cleared to cross a runway prematurely of an Aeromexico Boeing 737 starting its takeoff roll. Spotting the conflict in time, ATC called on the Aeromexico flight to reject takeoff.
Incident details
On May tenth, an Aeromexico Boeing 737 MAX 8 was set to perform flight AM117 from Mexico City (MEX) to Ciudad Juarez (CJS). Around the identical time, a Viva Aerobus Airbus A321-200 had touched down after a flight from Nuevo Laredo (NLD) and was presumably taxiing towards the terminal.
Based on reporting by The Aviation Herald, the Viva Aerobus A321 (registered XA-VBU) had landed on runway 23L, vacated the runway via taxiway B4, and was holding wanting runway 23R for several minutes. It’s reported that ATC was issuing a series of instructions to numerous aircraft when the tower controller misspoke a callsign, which seemingly cleared the Viva Aerobus A321 to cross the runway. Complying with the erroneous clearance, the crew of the A321 commenced crossing the runway.
Photo: FlightRadar24.com
Various sources differ of their definition of a high-speed versus a low-speed rejected takeoff. Some consider the edge is 80 knots, where anything above this point is taken into account high-speed. For others, that speed is 100 knots. While V1 (point of no return) speed will rely on environmental conditions and aircraft loading, an aircraft just like the 737 MAX 8 would have a V1 speed of around 150 knots.
While the Aeromexico 737 was below V1 speed, its rejected takeoff speed of 80 knots (nearly 150 km/h or 90 mph) would still see an incredible amount of kinetic energy being absorbed by the aircraft’s brakes. Consequently, the aircraft’s brakes can be fairly hot. As noted by the web site Pilot Institute, the warmer brakes are, the less efficient they’re.
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Sources: Planespotters.net, FlightRadar24.com, The Aviation Herald, Pilot Institute