Airbus A300-600F, El Paso, Texas, June 10, 2002–The NTSB determined that the cause of the tail strike the FedEx Airbus suffered on takeoff from El Paso International was the flight crew’s failure to obtain Vr speed before rotation, which resulted in insufficient lift. The crew had entered the V-speeds in the flight-management system (FMS) and both crewmembers’ primary flight displays (PFDs) showed no discrepancies. V1 was 139 knots and Vr was approximately 143 knots. The captain entered the V2 speed into the flight control computer, and 250 knots for the extended speed. As the airplane accelerated for takeoff, the V-speeds were shown correctly on the PFD at 80 knots. Distracted momentarily to check the engine diagnostic page, the first officer then saw that V2 had reset to 100 knots. He called V1 rotate and the captain raised the nose to 12 degrees of pitch. The airplane was not accelerating. The first officer saw the airspeed was below V2 and executed a rejected takeoff.
When the airplane landed, the flight computer applied maximum autobrake, causing two tires to burst. The flight crew entry in the aircraft maintenance log stated, “Rejected T/O due to FMS speeds dumping and blue A/S line rolling back to 100. Rejected @ 120 knots raw data still indicated properly.”
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