Icelandair Tail Strike
Our trip to Iceland was started off and continued to be a challenge. Upon arrival Saturday morning in Keflavik was met with extreme weather conditions. Walking outside the airport you get an immediate shock to the senses and your body. It's a different kind of cold. It gets right down to your bones. The whole trip was traversing and navigating safely through the weather while avoiding danger.
The following Saturday it was time to leave Reykjavik. The weather that morning seemed to be much better than the previous Saturday. However, as the locals say, “if you don’t like the weather in Iceland…just wait 5 minutes” Couldn’t be more true. As we make our way out of Reykjavik and begin our 40 min drive to the airport in Keflavik, I began to check the weather forecast at our departure time of 5:15pm. The weather app indicates high winds from the South. No problem. I’m more curious about the weather in Seattle upon arrival. Storm and high winds. Looks like we are going to be managing weather all day. Ha. My concern getting out of Iceland is the delays due to weather. I knew once we were wheels up, there would be no issues all the way to Seattle, even given the storm that we were flying into.
As we make our way inside the Keflavik Airport, I am so enamored by all the cool pictures and abundance of gift shopping. Seriously, if you need a last minute gift before leaving Iceland, you’ll find it at the airport. I was so tempted to pick up some Icelandic vodka before departure. That stuff was good. We make our way through TSA and down to our gate. I’m happy to look outside and see our beautiful 737–900 MAX decked out in Icelandair livery just waiting for us to board. Gorgeous aircraft. One new feature of the 800 & 900 MAX (well I should point out…appearing cosmetic to the naked eye, however serving a purpose in terms of aircraft performance) is the chevrons on the back of the engine cowling and the new sleek design of split scimitars on the wing tips (also know as winglets). Man, they really fine tuned the design of those winglets. Well…I might was well give a brief detail on the functionality of each feature. The chevrons reduce noise emissions, thus making the aircraft more fuel efficient. Believe it or not, sound insulation adds weight to the aircraft. Several hundred pounds of weight can be harbored inside the aircraft due to sound and vibrations. The second is the winglets, you’ve seen these before. This wing design has been circling the globe for almost 2 decades now. This feature reduces drag and again, makes the plane more efficient. Planes give off what is known as “wingtip vortices”…these are vortex (like mini tornados) of disrupted air that heads downwards towards the earth. This has been known to elevate wake turbulence which downed aircraft who encounter in the past.
Back to the story…The gates are packed with people. As we approach the time of boarding we hear the call over the loudspeaker. The gates appear to be tight so people are more crammed together and we have to do a little shoulder tapping to make sure we are in the right line to board. As we make our way towards the aircraft in the jet way, I look outside to try and catch any remaining detail of Iceland. Pretty cool the jet way was translucent. I savor the last moments of being present in Iceland, noticing the ground, the topography, the elements. I wonder when the next time, if at all, I will be back. I sure hope so. Summer time for sure. No more winter Iceland ever for me. Getting on the plane you’re greeted by such a wonderful flight crew. The men and women are decked out in such classy uniforms. Its very comforting and great to see. We sit down in our seats and wait for the others to get situated before departure.
Damn. The wind. As we are sitting idle in the plane on the tarmac, the wind is pushing the plane back and forth. The whole plane is rocking. It is apparent that strong wind has arrived. I double check my weather app and the current wind is a 32mph SSW wind. Wow! That’s a heavy wind. What’s more challenging is the degree of speed of this wind on the ground. I Apple Maps the airport runway configuration. There are 2 runways. I surmised we will be taking off on runway 19 heading south and into the wind. This is known as a headwind. A head wind can provide advantage on take off. As we taxi out we set and turn on runway 19. I knew it. We are cleared for departure and the pilots began to apply thrust. As we roll down the runway, everything appears normal just like any other takeoff. As we begin rotation and initiate our take off roll, the aircraft lifts off quicker and “BANG!!!” …the noise was loud! Simultaneously the aircraft shutters (reflected on the wings).
Immediately I knew it was a tail strike. There was no confusion. The loud band and subsequent shutter of the aircraft on take off left there to be no mistake we just experienced a rare aviation occurrence. I knew right away this was pilot error. Since we had a strong direct headwind, we reached V1 on a Boeing 737 likely 20–30% earlier down the runway. V1 is the minimum requirement for takeoff. However, the pilots executed a normal take off roll configuration which is a higher pitch and angle of attack than what should have been done in a headwind. The nose up attitude performed was much like throwing a kite in the wind, just gets grabbed and shoots straight up. What should have happened was a gradual lift with an easy pull of the yoke on the flight controls. Since we had the extra runway it was not necessary to perform a takeoff roll so early. In fact tail strikes do happen when pilots run out of runway and are forced to take off quick to avoid further danger. All aircrafts will naturally lift off the runaway with minimal action on the flight controls just by design. A gradual lift would have allowed the airflow to be less dramatic on the aircraft which would have reduced any opportunity for a tail strike.
