I'm glad it all turned out okay. Without second-guessing the crew, it's a chance for all of us to think about what we would do in a similar situation.
During upgrade training, we did a series of possible RTOs. Some serious, some minor, and it was fascinating what some pilots deemed worthy of an high-speed abort. (a lav fire, for example - perhaps an unintended result of abbreviating the takeoff briefing to "fire/failure/loss of directional control")
A high-speed abort (80+ KIAS) is a very, very risky maneuver. Boeing studied RTOs over the past 30 years and found:- More than half the RTO accidents and incidents reported in the past 30 years were initiated from a speed in excess of V1.
- About one-third were reported as occurring on runways that were wet or contaminated with snow or ice.
- Only slightly more than one-fourth of the accidents and incidents actually involved any loss of engine thrust.
- Nearly one-fourth of the accidents and incidents were the result of wheel or tire failures.
- Approximately 80 percent of the overrun events were potentially avoidable by following appropriate operational practices.
(bold/italics added by me)
I can think of two RTOs I've had: a bird sucked into an engine at 80 knots and a generator failing at 70 knots. With the bird, we were on guard and had discussed the threat prior to takeoff. The gen failure was a surprise, and quite frankly, it took us a few seconds to respond. Good thing it was a long runway and a nice day.