ground loop
- noun
- /ɡraʊnd luːp/
- Specialized
:
giro en tierra
- A ground loop can occur if an aircraft loses control while taxiing on the runway.
Examples
-
Sudden weather changes contributed to the aircraft's ground loop as it attempted to take off.
-
After a false start in Oakland, not a month before—the plane did a ground loop, turned uncontrollably before it was ever airborne—she told reporters, "If we don't burn up, I'd like to try again."
Fiction book (1997) -
The pilot skillfully avoided a ground loop during the landing, ensuring a safe arrival.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents 'ground' + 'loop' do cue a turning or circular movement on the ground, so a learner could plausibly infer some kind of ground-based spinning/turning. However, the specific technical sense — an abrupt, uncontrollable turn by an aircraft during landing or takeoff — is specialized and not fully predictable from the parts, making the expression only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Ground loop comes from the image of a plane suddenly spinning in a circle while still on the ground, almost like drawing a quick loop. That's why it means 'a sudden, uncontrolled turn' by a plane during landing or takeoff.
