A LATAM A319 flight had to reject its takeoff because several vehicles were ahead of it on the runway. There were no injuries in the incident.
This incident happened on the evening of Saturday the 18th of June this year. It involved LATAM Brazil flight JJ-3814 (LA-3814), departing from Brasilia International Airport (SBBR) in Brazil. The destination of this domestic flight was Sinop Airport (SBSI). Normally, this evening flight takes just under half an hour.
There were 142 passengers and 5 crew on board the LATAM A319 for this flight. Its crew decided to perform an intersection takeoff, from runway 29R. They lined up on the runway right on time and commenced their takeoff roll, once the tower gave them their clearance. All this was happening at night.
LATAM A319 Stops
But after the flight crew started their takeoff roll, the Tower controller instructed them to stop. The LATAM crew was able to do this safely, taking the first exit off the runway. We don’t know the aircraft’s airspeed, but according to ADSB data, its highest groundspeed was 51-52 knots. So this was a low-speed rejection.
According to Brazil’s CENIPA, the controller instructed the LATAM A319 crew to reject because there were vehicles on the runway. It is unclear what these vehicles were doing, or if they were supposed to be on the runway at that time. In any case, the aircraft taxied back to the runway using the same intersection as before.
The LATAM A319 crew took off from Brasilia just five minutes after rejecting on their first attempt. It appears that the rest of the flight was uneventful, reaching Sinop on time. The aircraft has remained in regular service after the event. The authorities have not opened an investigation into this incident.
This is an Airbus A319-132, with tail number PR-MBN. It is nearly fifteen and a half years old, first entering service with TAM Linhas Aéreas in February 2007. The airline merged with LAN in 2016, becoming LATAM.
