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CHI87IA163

1987-06-18 · DETROIT, Michigan, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport DTW

N515US has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (CZECH SPORT AIRCRAFT A S SPORTCRUISER, built 2011), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

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.' Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_CHI87IA163.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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