Narrative:

The flight crew of an aircraft awaiting takeoff saw sparks being emitted from the left engine just prior to liftoff and again a burst of sparks from the engine at about 400 ft after liftoff. Tower advised us of the report. The engine did not exhibit any abnormal indications. I declared an emergency; notified the flight attendants and returned to land uneventfully. After clearing the runway we stopped and shut down the engine. Emergency crews checked the engine for signs of damage and found none. We returned to the gate and aircraft maintenance started inspecting for signs of damage. We landed at 129;600 pounds so no overweight landing inspection was required.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD-80 declared and emergency and returned to their departure airport when another flight crew reported sparks from their left engine just before liftoff and again shortly after takeoff.

Narrative: The flight crew of an aircraft awaiting takeoff saw sparks being emitted from the left engine just prior to liftoff and again a burst of sparks from the engine at about 400 FT after liftoff. Tower advised us of the report. The engine did not exhibit any abnormal indications. I declared an emergency; notified the Flight Attendants and returned to land uneventfully. After clearing the runway we stopped and shut down the engine. Emergency crews checked the engine for signs of damage and found none. We returned to the gate and aircraft Maintenance started inspecting for signs of damage. We landed at 129;600 LBS so no overweight landing inspection was required.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.