Editor’s Note: This anonymous first-person account of a rejected Boeing 757 takeoff and what caused it offers several lessons about aircraft maintenance and ground handling, plus pre-flight inspections. Even though it involves a type most of us will only ride in, the lessons apply to anything that flies.
It was an early departure from the Philadelphia (Pa.) International Airport (KPHL) back to home plate. Thanks to an in-flight encounter with severe turbulence two days earlier, which injured three of my passengers, it had been a memorable three-day trip. I was the pilot flying the 757 for our last leg.
