Summary
- A United Airlines Boeing 737-900 had a tail strike while departing from Boston Logan Airport, however the plane safely returned to the airport.
- The aircraft stayed on the bottom for over 12 hours before returning to business service.
- Tail strikes are frequently attributable to human error and may occur during takeoff or landing, but this incident happened during takeoff.
On November 1, a United Airlines Boeing 737-900 had a tail strike while departing from runway 09 at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). The plane took off safely and flew for nearly half-hour before returning to the airport.
What happened?
On Wednesday, United Airlines deployed a Boeing 737-900 registered N37468 to operate flight UA2396 between Boston and Newark Liberty (EWR) in the US with 104 people onboard.
The flight departed from Boston Logan International Airport at 20:08 local time, in accordance with data from FlightRadar24.com. Because the plane accelerated northeast down runway 09 and commenced to rotate, the aircraft suffered a tail strike. A tail strike is when the tail of an airplane comes into contact with the runway surface.
Photo: Angel DiBilio / Shutterstock
The aircraft is fitted with two CFM International CFM56-7B26 turbo-engines. CMF International is a three way partnership between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engine. Over 33,000 CMF56 engines have been delivered, accumulating over one billion flight hours on aircraft of greater than 600 operators.
The CFM56-7B is the exclusive engine for the Boeing 737NG family, with near half of all CFM56 engines installed on 737 aircraft. Moreover, the 56-7B is the engine of alternative for the Boeing AEW&C and P-8 Poseidon military aircraft.
Tail strikes
In accordance with Boeing, most tail strikes are a results of human error. In a study conducted by Boeing, there’s a high correlation between flight hour experience on an aircraft type and the occurrence of a strike. That being said, other aspects, similar to severe winds, can increase the potential for such an event.