Narrative:

I was the pilot not flying on a flight that experienced an apparent tailskid strike on takeoff. The most current ATIS winds were 220 degrees at 19 KTS gusting to 34 KTS and I believe the tower reported winds 220 degrees at 31 KTS gusting to 38 KTS. The preflight was very thorough and we discussed the various performance options for our takeoff. The captain elected flaps 15 degrees and maximum power to which I concurred due to the windshear advisories in effect on the ATIS as well as the better airplane configuration for the conditions. We also discussed the option of slower than normal rotation and decided to do so. The taxi out and takeoff preparations were all normal and the takeoff roll was fairly normal for the windy and turbulent conditions. As the pilot not flying; I did notice several airspeed fluctuations; including a large gust at 80 KTS that delayed my 80 KT SOP callout until about 90-95 KTS. The airspeed continued to jump around nearing V1 and I ended up calling V1 at V1 as opposed to 5 KTS prior. The vr callout was almost immediately after the V1 callout and the captain began his rotation. The airspeed seemed to hang a little after vr and then jumped up near V2. That is when I transitioned to the instruments and noticed the pitch increasing. I noticed the pitch was nearing 4-5 degrees when it quickly jumped to about 8-9 degrees. By the time I quickly brought my hands up; the captain had already pushed the nose forward and the jet was off the ground. Shortly after that; we saw the tailskid EICAS message. Once the after takeoff checklist was completed; we discussed the light and requested a leveloff and amended clearance from ATC. We ran the 2 checklists that pertain to the tailskid light and suspected tail strike and called the flight attendants to ask what they felt or heard. They said that they thought they heard a scraping sound; but didn't feel anything specifically. We acarsed dispatch to report that we were preparing to return to the field and discussed a possible overweight landing; what runway; and what flaps setting. The captain and I took turns flying the airplane as dispatch phone-patched maintenance control and the captain to further discuss the circumstances. We did have a mechanic on board who was a maintenance controller and I queried him several times to solicit his thoughts; input and recommendations. While he said that he didn't see anything out of the ordinary; he did listen in on the maintenance control phone patch. I again queried him on approach to ensure that we had not missed anything and wanted to make sure we were utilizing every resource we had in the cockpit. The approach and landing were normal for the windy; turbulent conditions and we elected flaps 25 degrees with full 20 KT gust factor on ZZZ runway xx. We also elected to have the emergency equipment nearby due to the recent takeoff and higher than normal landing reference speeds that could cause high brake temperature issues. I stayed quite focused on the airspeed; pitch and vsi and made vsi and airspeed reference callouts to the captain on short final. The landing and rollout were normal. We checked the brake temps; called ramp for a gate and requested the wheels be chocked. Taxi in and parking were normal.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B767-300 suffered an apparent tailskid strike on takeoff in gusty crosswinds.

Narrative: I was the pilot not flying on a flight that experienced an apparent tailskid strike on takeoff. The most current ATIS winds were 220 degrees at 19 KTS gusting to 34 KTS and I believe the Tower reported winds 220 degrees at 31 KTS gusting to 38 KTS. The preflight was very thorough and we discussed the various performance options for our takeoff. The Captain elected flaps 15 degrees and maximum power to which I concurred due to the windshear advisories in effect on the ATIS as well as the better airplane configuration for the conditions. We also discussed the option of slower than normal rotation and decided to do so. The taxi out and takeoff preparations were all normal and the takeoff roll was fairly normal for the windy and turbulent conditions. As the pilot not flying; I did notice several airspeed fluctuations; including a large gust at 80 KTS that delayed my 80 KT SOP callout until about 90-95 KTS. The airspeed continued to jump around nearing V1 and I ended up calling V1 at V1 as opposed to 5 KTS prior. The Vr callout was almost immediately after the V1 callout and the Captain began his rotation. The airspeed seemed to hang a little after Vr and then jumped up near V2. That is when I transitioned to the instruments and noticed the pitch increasing. I noticed the pitch was nearing 4-5 degrees when it quickly jumped to about 8-9 degrees. By the time I quickly brought my hands up; the Captain had already pushed the nose forward and the jet was off the ground. Shortly after that; we saw the tailskid EICAS message. Once the After Takeoff checklist was completed; we discussed the light and requested a leveloff and amended clearance from ATC. We ran the 2 checklists that pertain to the Tailskid light and suspected tail strike and called the Flight Attendants to ask what they felt or heard. They said that they thought they heard a scraping sound; but didn't feel anything specifically. We ACARSed Dispatch to report that we were preparing to return to the field and discussed a possible overweight landing; what runway; and what flaps setting. The Captain and I took turns flying the airplane as Dispatch phone-patched Maintenance Control and the Captain to further discuss the circumstances. We did have a mechanic on board who was a Maintenance Controller and I queried him several times to solicit his thoughts; input and recommendations. While he said that he didn't see anything out of the ordinary; he did listen in on the Maintenance Control phone patch. I again queried him on approach to ensure that we had not missed anything and wanted to make sure we were utilizing every resource we had in the cockpit. The approach and landing were normal for the windy; turbulent conditions and we elected flaps 25 degrees with full 20 KT gust factor on ZZZ Runway XX. We also elected to have the emergency equipment nearby due to the recent takeoff and higher than normal landing reference speeds that could cause high brake temperature issues. I stayed quite focused on the airspeed; pitch and VSI and made VSI and airspeed reference callouts to the Captain on short final. The landing and rollout were normal. We checked the brake temps; called Ramp for a gate and requested the wheels be chocked. Taxi in and parking were normal.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.