Posted on 08/20/2026 8:42:00 AM PDT by DFG
A passenger plane carrying nearly 300 people struck its tail as it took off from Munich airport in an incident that was described as a 'near disaster'.
Footage showed the tumultuous departure of the Vietnam Airlines Boeing 787 on Saturday.
A cloud of dust was thrown into the air as the tail hit the ground. Inside the cabin, a loud scraping noise was heard as the plane, which was carrying 271 passengers and 16 crew, lifted off the runway.
The 250-ton plane skidded across grass, hit light posts and soared towards trees as the crew – made up of three pilots and one less experienced first officer – desperately pulled its nose up into the air.
No one onboard the Hanoi-bound plane was hurt, but aviation experts said the episode could have ended in disaster.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), the pilots reported that the aircraft, whose registration is VN-A867, stopped accelerating for about two seconds while halfway down Munich Airport's 26L runway.
AeroTime, an aviation news organisation, reported that the 787 then began accelerating again, reaching V1 – the maximum speed during take off where a pilot can safely abort and stop a plane on the runway.
But with too little runway left, the pilots continued to accelerate. The pilots only had about 300ft of runway when they lifted the plane's nose to fly into the sky.
Photos and videos show long skid marks towards the end of the runway, indicating there may have been some late braking. So far, officials have not yet determined that a crew or brake malfunction happened.
But Germany's Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation said that the tyre marks were linked to the Boeing aircraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
No bet. And the newspaper already made sure it's known that it was a Boeing plane.
It probably will be blamed on Boeing, it was a mechanical failure. The picture of the blown tires shows that only two on the same axle shredded. The other two tires on the same main landing gear did not fail. There is no way for a pilot to only apply the brakes to one of the axles on the same truck. The pilots can apply brakes to either main landing gear, or both. But not to only half the wheels on the same side. So it looks like the electric brakes locked on one axle only.
Yep, they have an “iron clad grasp of the blatantly obvious”……lol
Pilot’s NAMES!
True
Those pictures look kind of off.
It’s hard to believe you could get the plane into the air with tires like that. Maybe the pic was made after landing - pilots can’t take off and can’t land either?
There’s a skid hump underneath the fuselage which comes into play during a tail strike. That hole doesn’t look like it’s in the tail skid area.
Charlie Don’t Fly.
They took off and flew around for 2 hours before landing at the same airport.
“A cloud of dust was thrown into the air as the tail hit the ground. Inside the cabin, a loud scraping noise was heard as the plane, which was carrying 271 passengers and 16 crew, lifted off the runway.” Aren’t airplanes supposed to do that?
Possibly an early and/or over rotation.
East Indian truck drivers flying planes now?
WOW - that really shredded the tires. Do we know what the landing was like whenever they reached wherever they were going?
From the article: “”made up of three pilots and one less experienced first officer””
The first officer IS a pilot - THE Copilot...The other three are not going to be asked to take over if something happens to the pilot - that’s the First Officer’s job...Don’t even know why the other three were there...didn’t notice the TYPE - was there a Flight Engineer? He might be a pilot but wouldn’t take over flight duties.
“”They took off and flew around for 2 hours before landing at the same airport.””
Guess I’ll go back and read the WHOLE article...LOL
Saw on YT the plane has electrically applied brakes. Flying around the airport was to dump fuel to avoid overweight landing.
It was a 787, so no FE.
“”Jacques Jaurand, a retired Air France Boeing captain, told The Times: ‘There may have been a problem with decision-making on the flight deck and also perhaps a problem with the aircraft itself.’
He said it was possible, though unlikely, that a pilot may have applied the brakes while the captain was unaware.””
Well, that’s what you get when you have too many pilots on board, I guess.
Kind of “Who’s on First?”
Thanks so I don’t have to go back and look at the article again...
Summer intern at Oakland station KTVU, then owned by the Atlanta Urinal-Constipation, as it was called (and now WSB-TV since there is no longer a newspaper in Atlanta). The station was later acquired as a Fox O&O.
Asiana 214 crew:
Captain, Lee Kang-kook (45), piloting plane
Captain, Lee Jeong-min (49), Instructor
First Officer, Bong Dong-won (40), observer (flew half of flight under compliance with rules)
Captain Lee Jong-joo (52), business class seat.
The latter flew halfway through the 10-hour flight because of rules that crews are restricted to eight hours a shift. The reserve crew flew the plane over the Pacific Ocean to comply with laws.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.