DALLAS ¨C U.S. air-safety investigators are looking into a mechanical failure that caused the nose of an Allegiant Airlines jet to rise off the ground prematurely before takeoff, defying the crew¡¯s attempts to push it down.
Pilots abruptly halted their roll on the runway at 138 miles per hour to regain control of the Boeing Co. MD-83 in Las Vegas on Aug. 17, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Allegiant blamed a fault in the elevator, the part of the tail that helps an aircraft to climb or descend.
¡°That is a very big deal,¡± John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board who worked as an airline mechanic, said in an interview. ¡°At very minimum, they would have had control problems. In a worst-case scenario, they would have been unable to control it. It could have been a disaster.¡±
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