Originally Posted by
HuggyU2
..No black box that I'm aware of onboard. I suppose the investigation will rely mainly on what the crew says.
Nope, no FDR, but I believe the intercom system was upgraded when CONECT was added. I don't know if that included a cockpit voice recorder or not. (Retired in 2010).
Originally Posted by
HoursHore
Semi serious question: Will the buff abort for a single engine failure before V1...?
Yes, absolutely. And it's S1 or decision speed in BUFF terms. If S1 is not reached in X time, then abort. Or if critical event happens before S1, abort. The timing starts at 70 knots. The navigator calls off the time: "Coming up on 16.3 seconds: ready, ready, NOW".
It's been a while, but IIRC, normal dry runway S1 speeds and times for average gross weights (~400K-440K) were ~114-116 knots and 14-16 seconds. For a dry runway, the takeoff data is calculated using a 4000' decision distance. We don't go off of the distance, only S1 speed in XX time, but the decision to abort or continue will be made very close to 4000' after starting the takeoff roll (again, on a dry runway).
The takeoff data is calculated assuming no drag chute (worst case). If the drag chute deploys, then all the better. The max airspeed for drag chute deployment is 135 knots. If they aborted above 135 and the co-pilot panicked and deployed the chute before they got below 135, then the chute likely failed/sheared.
I'm assuming this was a very high speed abort well beyond S1. We've had a couple of those where the pilot felt for some reason that the plane just wasn't going to make it off the ground. IIRC, one ran off the end of the runway at Castle AFB in the mid-early 80's after rejecting the takeoff well beyond S1. I believe in that case that they were almost to S2 (unstick) speed when the decision to abort was made.