19 DEC: Crew error led to an Emirates aircraft scraping the tarmac during take-off from Melbourne in 2009, safety authorities say in a final report on the incident.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) found that a flight officer on the Airbus A340 entered an incorrect take-off weight into the electronic flight system.
The plane took off on the premise that it weighed 263 tonnes, but its real weight was 363 tonnes.
The report found a series of human errors meant the captain did not notice the miscalculation either.
The plane, carrying 275 passengers and crew, eventually became airborne after the captain applied maximum thrust.
But the tail struck the tarmac and the plane was reportedly still low enough to hit navigational equipment as it crossed the end of the runway.
Millions of dollars of damage was caused to the aircraft.
A report in The Australian quotes ATSB chief commissioner Martin Nolan as saying that once the pilots realised what the problem was, they handled it very well, "but it was a lot later than any of us would like".
