A plane over Beirut, near Ramlet el-Baïda beach. (Credit: Illustration photo by Matthieu Karam)
BEIRUT — A plane departing from Beirut aborted its takeoff on Thursday morning following a decision by the pilot, with no further consequences for passengers.
The aircraft did not leave the ground but had to abort its take-off at an unspecified speed.
This information was confirmed to L'Orient-Le jour by a spokesman for the Lebanese travel agency Nakhal, which leases the aircraft to the national charter airline Middle East Airlines (MEA).
The maneuver was carried out at daybreak after the pilot decided to abort the flight prematurely mid-take-off "as a precaution, after suspecting the presence of an anomaly."
An MEA source added that a rejected takeoff is a standard safety procedure for which pilots are duly trained.
Acting Director General of Civil Aviation Fadi al-Hassan clarified to L'Orient-Le Jour that the aircraft did not leave the ground, but had to abort the take-off procedure in the middle of the acceleration phase, due to a problem with the speed display in the cockpit.
'No-go item'
Speed display is a "no-go item"— an essential element needed to guarantee a safe takeoff.
According to a pilot interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour, who requested anonymity, this could be a discrepancy between the interface displaying speed on the pilot's side and that of the co-pilot.
"Typically, during a take-off phase, the captain and co-pilot signal each other when they reach 100 knots (185 km/h) to confirm that their instruments are synchronized. It was probably at this point that they detected the problem with the airspeed indicator, prompting the captain to abort the takeoff," explained the pilot. "At this speed, braking may have been hard on the passengers, but the risks at this stage are under control."
The Nakhal spokesman indicated that one passenger fainted and was taken care of by paramedics.
After aborting takeoff, the pilot then redirected the aircraft to the gate where passengers were invited to board another flight.
