Qatar Airways plane suffers ‘substantial’ damage on takeoff

A Qatar Airways plane struck runway lights while taking off from Miami International airport last week, causing “substantial” damage to the aircraft’s underbelly, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

Qatar Airways flight 778 “struck the approach lighting system runway lights,” the FAA said in the preliminary report, according to Doha News.

The plane continued towards its final destination, Doha, without any further incidents, the report added.

The plane entered the runway at an intersection which reduced the available distance for takeoff from the standard length of 3,968 meters to 2,600 meters, Doha News reported.

An electronic system usually produces the exact data required for takeoff on any runway. It remains unclear why the system failed, which uses a list of factors such as temperature, wind, air pressure, and the aircraft’s load to generate its data.

After landing in Doha’s Hamad International airport, an “inspection revealed damage to underbelly of aircraft described as substantial.”

“Qatar… reported to the FAA that they found some dents and scratches on the belly of flight 778, a Boeing 777,” the FAA told aviation news website Flightglobal.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is yet to launch an official investigation but is “gathering information.”

“We have investigators gathering information to determine the extent of the damage,” the NTSB told Flightglobal.