Narrative:

Wake turbulence encounter on departure off of 25R lax. A321 with 'sharklet' winglets was cleared for takeoff and we were given a line up and wait clearance. As soon as the A321 lifted off we were given take off clearance. We were heavy and flaps 1 which resulted in a long take off roll; first officer was pilot flying. At approximately 400 ft AGL we encountered moderate to severe wake turbulence. The aircraft violently banked to the right 35-40 degrees and the first officer was moving the control column with little command authority. After 2-3 seconds the first officer was able to get the wings close to straight and level; but then the aircraft violently banked 35-40 degrees left and again 2-3 seconds to recover; finally it happened for a third time; to the right. The pitch of the aircraft varied between 5-20 degrees nose up during the event with the airspeed jumping +/- 30 kts. I instructed the first officer to begin a turn to the left as the aircraft in front us was flying straight out. The entire event lasted no more than 10 seconds; I reported it to ATC; they responded 'roger' and we continued on the SID. Out of sterile I called the flight attendant's and they said that some passengers had priceless looks on their faces; but everyone was safe and we continued uneventfully.possibly in the future I'd consider a flaps 2 takeoff to try and lift off sooner; but in lax you never know what type of aircraft you could be taking off behind. Anything heavier and we would have gotten wake turbulence separation. Anything smaller and it would have been a non-issue. I think ATC should re-revaluate the separation minimums behind B757s and A321s as that was a heavy aircraft that used a lot of runway and we in turn used a lot of runway as our takeoff weight was near 83;000 lbs at flaps 1. In our configuration it was almost impossible to climb above the preceding aircraft's wake; our only option was to slowly begin a turn to the left to offset ourselves.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-175 Captain reported a 'moderate to severe' wake turbulence encounter shortly after takeoff from Runway 25R at LAX in trail of an A321.

Narrative: Wake turbulence encounter on departure off of 25R LAX. A321 with 'sharklet' winglets was cleared for takeoff and we were given a line up and wait clearance. As soon as the A321 lifted off we were given take off clearance. We were heavy and flaps 1 which resulted in a long take off roll; FO was pilot flying. At approximately 400 ft AGL we encountered moderate to severe wake turbulence. The aircraft violently banked to the right 35-40 degrees and the FO was moving the control column with little command authority. After 2-3 seconds the FO was able to get the wings close to straight and level; but then the aircraft violently banked 35-40 degrees left and again 2-3 seconds to recover; finally it happened for a third time; to the right. The pitch of the aircraft varied between 5-20 degrees nose up during the event with the airspeed jumping +/- 30 kts. I instructed the FO to begin a turn to the left as the aircraft in front us was flying straight out. The entire event lasted no more than 10 seconds; I reported it to ATC; they responded 'roger' and we continued on the SID. Out of sterile I called the FA's and they said that some passengers had priceless looks on their faces; but everyone was safe and we continued uneventfully.Possibly in the future I'd consider a flaps 2 takeoff to try and lift off sooner; but in LAX you never know what type of aircraft you could be taking off behind. Anything heavier and we would have gotten wake turbulence separation. Anything smaller and it would have been a non-issue. I think ATC should re-revaluate the separation minimums behind B757s and A321s as that was a heavy aircraft that used a lot of runway and we in turn used a lot of runway as our takeoff weight was near 83;000 lbs at flaps 1. In our configuration it was almost impossible to climb above the preceding aircraft's wake; our only option was to slowly begin a turn to the left to offset ourselves.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.