Description

On 14 July 2007, a Boeing 737-800 being operated by New Zealand airline Polynesian Blue on a scheduled passenger service from Sydney to Christchurch New Zealand commenced take off on Runway 16R with asymmetric thrust set and veered off the side of the runway reaching the intersecting runway 07 before rejected take off action initiated by the flight crew took effect and the aircraft came to a stop.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the ATSB. It was was established that, with the aircraft commander as PF, the aircraft had entered Runway 16R via Taxiway ‘G’ with the intention of performing a rolling take off from that intersection using reduced thrust. Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data showed that as the aircraft neared this intersection, both engine thrust levers had been advanced together but whilst the left engine N1 had increased to 28%, the right engine N1 had remained steady at 20% RPM, equivalent to Idle.