- Date
- June 18, 1987, 08:56 local (12:56 UTC)
- Place
- Detroit, MI
- Injuries
- 123 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Phase of flight
- Takeoff
- Aircraft
- N515USBoeing 757-251
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report July 10, 1989
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19870618054339I
- Case key
- 13669
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
A northwest airlines Boeing 757, operating as flight 336, scraped the tail cone area of the fuselage on the runway when the pilot failed to maintain sufficient ground clearance during rotation and takeoff from Detroit, Michigan. The Boeing 757 flight operation manual states that 'normally...approximately 3 degrees per second is a good rotation rate. ' on page three of the flight data recorder data, under pitch, it indicates a pitch change of 5.997 degrees in one second, and 4.922 degrees in the next second. The flight operation manual also states that 'rotating at too fast a rate for existing conditions and/or an early rotation can result in a tail strike.'
Aircraft
- Registration
- N515US
- Reported as
- Boeing 757-251
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 23203
- Engine
- P&W JT9D-7, 40,550 horsepower, turbo fan
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Registered owner
- Northwest Airlines, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal; Standard, Transport
- Departed
- DTW · Detroit, MI
- Destination
- BOS · Boston, MA
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- DTW · Detroit Metro, runway 21, 10,500 × 200 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 46
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 11,865 total · 160 in the last 90 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 25,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 68 °F, dew point 55 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- DTW
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.