Originally Posted by
blackjack-21
Several times years ago on AA's B727's at both DFW and ORD. At ORD, we watched as an MD-80 beside us backed out under power then we did the same. Very noisy as the thrust reversers were used, but it saved time waiting for the tugs. As mentioned above, I always thought that aircraft with wing mounted low engines weren't allowed to do the reverse thrust backout due to sucking in debris because of the lower mounted engines, but I didn't realize that was given as one of the reasons for the tragic Air Florida crash in D.C. Thought it was a long delay after deicing at the time.
bj-21.
It was that too -- IIRC, it was a combination of a number of things, any one of which was inexcusable: Powering back at the gate (pulling snow and ice into the engine sensors), tailing a DC-9 while taxiing to remove wing ice with its engines instead of delaying to deice again (which just caused it to refreeze farther back in an even worse place), non-sterile cockpit conversations (including the pilots going through the checklist and even saying that the anti-ice systems were off, when they should have been on), and not reacting by either aborting the takeoff or firewalling the engines (the iced sensors made the gauges read as if full power when they were far from it). Really reflected badly on the pilots and the airline; I remember watching news of the sad tragedy, including true acts of heroism from those who jumped in the icy waters to save the few survivors...