On March 12, 2003 Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 suffered a tail strike as the rotation speed was 33 knots less than required

On March 12, 2003 Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 suffered a tail strike during take off from Auckland.

The effects of the “tail strike” suffered by Singapore Airlines’ Boeing 747-412 9V-SMT (CN / LN 27137/990 – scrapped) during take off from Auckland runway 23L (AKL).

The aircraft was performing flight SQ286 from Auckland (AKL) to Singapore (SIN) with 369 passengers and 20 crew members.

When the captain rotated the airplane for lift-off the tail struck the runway and scraped for some 490 meters until the airplane became airborne.

The tail strike occurred because the rotation speed was 33 knots less than the 163 knots required for the airplane weight.

The rotation speed had been mistakenly calculated for an airplane weighing 100 tonnes less than the actual weight of the plane.