EVA Air taking off from Amsterdam

[alans1100]

Received in an e-mail yesterday.

Imagine looking up to see this.



EVA Air Boeing 747-45EM taking off from runway 36L at Amsterdam-
Schiphol, Netherlands ..
The great timing and angle just makes this shot, and the size of the 747,
looks surreal.
The distance to the fence was 145 meters(475ft)... Yikes!
I wonder if anyone computed the take off distance prior to the trip?



This is an amazing picture of a disaster that didn't happen. From the smallest
airplane to the largest, weight & balance calculations are a critical part of flight safety.
From the looks of this 747, the weight was within the CG envelope, but if they'd have added
one more 'marshmallow' to each snack tray, this BIRD might not have cleared
the fence !!!!

[Gavo]

looks like a security fence that raises and lowers to allow traffic movements

[STeveo]

I wonder what the next photo would have looked like with the blast of four enginges on full power hitting the cars?

 

[Brock]

Probably not really as scary as it looks in the photo. Cameras can play tricks when the settings are right.

[Biggles]

A telephoto lens will do that foreshortening thing every time.

This scenario is not as uncommon as the photo suggests.  Here's British Airways:



And here is an aerial view of runway 36L:



The T/O path is about parallel to the fence and people location, so no problem with the blast.

And if the engine failure had happened shortly after rotating (V1)?
No problem clear path in front of the aircraft, no obstacles and the aircraft is rated to climb on one engine at full load.

There's actually 50% of the runway runway remaining when the wheels left the ground.

All the fuss about weight and balance are irrelevant.  The a/c is not overweight, nor did it exceed the safe T/O parameters.