Description

On 8 January 2010, a Boeing 737-800 being operated by Air Berlin on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Nuremburg to Düsseldorf left the snow-covered runway 10 shortly after attempting to begin a rolling take off in normal night visibility after less than normal braking action had been notified. The aircraft was not damaged and an emergency evacuation was not necessary. None of the 131 occupants was injured

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (Germany) (BFU) and SSFDR and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) data was successfully downloaded and used to assist the Investigation. It was noted that the crew was experienced and that the flight being operated had been delayed by an hour.

It was noted that the 50 year-old Captain had a total of 5,291 flying hours of which 3 720 hours were on type. The 39 year-old First Officer had a total of 4,603 flying hours of which 1,738It were on type.

It was established that the aircraft had left the side of the runway after about 150 metres and had come to a stop about 5 metres to the right of it with the wheels of the nose and the main landing gears having sunk into the soft ground by about 15 cm. On the runway, all three landing gears had left marks in the accumulated snow.