Accident: United Airlines B744 at Sydney on May 7th 2010, tail strike on takeoff

A United Airlines Boeing 747-400, registration N128UA performing flight UA-870 from Sydney,NS (Australia) to San Francisco,CA (USA) with 220 passengers, had just rotated off Sydney's runway 34L at 14:58L (04:58Z), when the crew of another aircraft on an adjacent taxiway reported the Boeing had touched the runway surface with the tail between intersection with taxiway Kilo and intersection with runway 07/25. The crew of the United 747 climbed to 8000 feet dumping fuel over the Tasman Sea and returned to Sydney's runway 34L for a safe landing about 80 minutes after departure. The airplane taxied off the runway at taxiway G.

Runway 25 was briefly closed until a runway inspection confirmed the runway was clear to be used for departures, runway 34L remained closed for about 35 minutes needing sweeping and causing delays to departures due to the runway and adjacent taxiways being unavailable. Tower told other aircraft, that debris needed to be cleared from runway 34L as result of the tailstrike.

Flight UA-870 had to be cancelled, the passengers were taken to local hotels.

The accident airplane N128UA was able to depart Sydney on May 11th noon as flight UA-9918 to Busan (South Korea) and climbed to FL360. Busan hosts a maintenance facility of Korean Airlines in charge of doing heavy maintenance for United Airlines' Boeing 747s.

The Australian Transportation Safety Board confirmed a tail strike by the aircraft and opened an investigation.