NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
B737NG Captain reported encountering wake turbulence departing LAS in trail of a B757.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
Departure from Runway 26R LAS. It is common practice at LAS for ATC to ask crews to report departing aircraft in sight and upon acknowledgement clear following aircraft for takeoff. We were following a B757 and received takeoff clearance reference above criteria. Upon liftoff we flew through prior departing aircraft's wake and began numerous uncommanded rolling motions. Several corrective actions took large control movements and forward pressure (even verbally stating, "I'm pushing") to counter the wake induced roll. None of the prescribed parameters for an upset were ever breached, but I feel had not taking aggressive actions could have led to an undesired aircraft state. At the time of the event our aircraft was configured for a Flaps 1, Bleeds on, Reduced Thrust Take Off.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Environment - Non Weather Related · Procedure
- Primary Problem
- Ambiguous
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.