leaveamessage

An interesting experience!
I've experienced plenty of aborted landings and go-arounds, but never a rejected take off.
Must have been very late as we were going very fast.

Any insiders know what the problem was? Engine fault was all we were told...now rescheduled for today

edit:
ongoing saga, scroll down for updates...

OPebble

My warped mind had this as the plane saying "No I am not going to take off! I have a bad headache! Just don't feel like it! I am a poor old 747 and we are far too high!"

Sorry!

Short Final

Depends what you call "very fast"

V1 in a 747 is going to be well over 100kts, probably around 150, so we're talking 277kmph / 172mph... or in that region. Obviously various factors affect the actual figure.

Aborting a takeoff anywhere up to and including V1 is not an issue and perfectly safe. Its unlikely that you were doing more than V1.

PUCCI GALORE

Hi this does not happen that often as it tends to scare people witless - and I for one, do not blame them. I have known people leave the flight if we have returned to the gate. Trust me you probably used lots of runway - but the whole take-off takes runway length to determining V1 and I doubt that you had reached that or you might have strayed on the M25!

Seriously - I read here so seldom so little understanding or comprehension that so many people are still terrified of flying. I am absolutely convinced that often this is the root of some of the behaviour that we see aboard - people drink for Dutch courage and then get nicotine wihdrawal (I am not advocating a return to smoking thank you!). That is quite a cocktail for volatility.

BA5E

Fab great sense of humour!!!!!

OPebble

That would have been quite a feat as BA56 operates from JNB > LHR (normally)!

J-Class

I can only remember one RTO in my whole flying career. DL DC-9 departing DFW, 1988. Wind direction caused high speed engine stall (which made a loud bang!). Five minutes later we took off without a hitch. Terrifying at the time - afterwards, the captain announced that the first class booze trolley would be made available to all passengers!

irishguy28

Like a refusal in showjumping!

BA304

I don't think I'd have felt very comfortable with a rejected take-off in JNB - you use so much runway in normal circumstances there that I'd worry there wouldn't be any left.
Having said that, it may just be me but I'm sure I hear of more aborted take-offs in Jo'burg than anywhere else - maybe because the engines are put under more strain in the hot and high environment?

Genius1

Takeoffs cannot generally be successfully aborted after V1. If attempted after V1, then the crew obviously are certain that there is a catastrophic issue that will prevent the aircraft from flying adequately, and therefore take a chance in running out of runway on the abort.

Short Final

Thank you for teaching granny how to suck eggs Genius1.

My post implied that if he was doing more than V1, there would have to have been a serious problem. But I felt that did not need to be said because the point I was trying to get accross to him was that his perception of "going very fast" was probably not very fast at all in the grand scheme of things.

LTN Phobia

I feel for those who have a fear of flying. I used to be one of them. Although fixed well and truly through 'over-exposure' so to speak, I occasionally remember how I used to feel. A good friend of mine suffers from pretty bad fear of flying but she has to fly because of her job, so I often talk about it with her too. I do my best to soothe my seat neighbour too when I know he or she has a fear of flying, although it's not easy. Their phobia is much worse than my phobia of LTN, I think... Anyway, what we find semi-amusing or intriguing may well be quite terrifying for others and I really feel for those who were scared witless by RTOs etc and want to get off.

The question is, did you keep going forward while the horse came to a dead stop?

(I suppose a similar mechanism is at work for the reason seat belts are important on a plane.)

clubman

How many is plenty???

Genius1

No need to be rude... I was just clarifying the reason behind the fact that aborted takeoffs beyond V1 are extremely rare, whereas those before V1 are fairly common.

leaveamessage

Update:

Just to clarify what happened on the first flight (this is based on the conversation I had tonite with the F.O)....we were going approx 88kts at the time, and the left outer engine suddenly lost most of its power due to a fueling problem. As a result of the thrust imbalance, the aircraft veered to the left (very noticeably), which required a load of rudder to correct it, while braking very heavily to bring us to a standstill. Not a great experience tbh, and not one i'd like to repeat.
Aircraft reg is G-BYGE.

Flight was rescheduled for tonite (31st)- same aircraft & crew.
Manic check in, due to there being two BA56s operating within 15mins of one another.
On board (after initially being bussed to, and boarding the wrong aircraft ), get onto the runway, hear the engines spool up, off we go, then hard braking again, and to a standstill on the runway.
Yes, ANOTHER rejected take off - same aircraft, same problem...only with the bonus of a small amount of fuel leaking from the engine this time, so we needed a tow back to the terminal.

Had tonites offloading been as much of a mess as last nite (one ground staff member dealing with hotel vouchers for an entire 744....), I fear there would be a full scale riot in progress. Thankfully tonite was a lot more organised, with a lot more communication.

Later on I was told by the captain that we will be on a different aircraft tomorrow- i presume the one en route from LHR as I type.
The vast majority of passengers- including premium pax moved to the lounge after offloading- were stating they will refuse to fly on it again.

Watch this space...