The pilots of an American Airlines plane taxied onto the wrong runway last year in New York (into the path of another plane that was taking off) after the captain became distracted and confused with takeoff instructions and the co-pilot lost control. track the location of your plane. , according to documents published on Monday.
Disaster was averted because an air traffic controller, using an expletive, yelled at the pilots of the other plane, a Delta Air Lines flight, to abort their takeoff.
The National Transportation Safety Board released documents related to its investigation of the Jan. 13, 2023, incident at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The investigation continues and the board said it has not yet determined probable cause for the closure.
The overnight incident was one of several close calls at U.S. airports that alarmed the public and lawmakers and led the Federal Aviation Administration to hold a “safety summit” last year.
The pilots of the American Airlines Boeing 777 bound for London took a wrong turn on a taxiway located next to two perpendicular runways. The crew had first planned a takeoff from runway 31L. However, they later received instructions from a controller and a message on their cockpit computer telling them to taxi across 31L and take off from runway 4L.
This diagram shows Delta Flight 1943 on a collision course with American Airlines Flight 106 at JFK Airport on Friday. FlightRadar24 An air traffic controller swore before ordering Delta Flight 1943 to cancel takeoff. FlightRadar24 This image shows the American Airlines flight crossing the runway of the Delta aircraft from an adjacent taxiway. FlightRadar24
In later interviews, “all three pilots (on the American Airlines plane) said they understood at that time that (the flight) would depart runway 4L,” according to the NTSB.
Instead, they crossed 4L just as a Delta Boeing 737 began its takeoff on the same runway.
The captain, Michael Graber, said that as the plane crossed the center of Runway 4L, he saw the red runway lights come on – the lights warn pilots when it is unsafe to be on the runway.
“All of a sudden I saw this red glow and immediately I said something, that’s not right,” he told investigators. “I didn’t know what was happening, but I was thinking something was wrong.”
The captain added power to accelerate.
Graber told investigators he heard and understood the controller’s instructions, but became distracted by a heavy workload and, in his mind, might have reverted to thinking they were taking off from the other runway.
The co-pilot, Traci González, said she knew at all times that they had to cross runway 31L, “but was not aware of the plane’s position when the captain taxied toward runway 4L,” investigators wrote. “She knew they were approaching a runway, but she didn’t realize they were approaching runway 4L.”
Stay up to date with today’s most important news
Stay up to date on the latest with Evening Update.
Thanks for registering!
The co-pilot also placed blame on distractions, including an unusually high number of weather alerts.
The third person in the cockpit, Jeffrey Wagner, relief pilot on the long international flight, said he was “head down” and didn’t know where the plane was as it taxied toward the runway. He said that when they crossed the wrong runway and saw a plane to the right of him, he initially thought he might be taxiing behind them.
The Delta pilots, warned by the air traffic controller, were able to brake to a stop. The planes were never closer than 300 meters (1,000 feet) apart, which is not a comforting margin in terms of aviation safety.
A controller warned the American crew about a “possible pilot deviation” and gave them a phone number to call, which the captain did. After a delay, they took off for London, this time via runway 31L. The crew did not report the incident to American Airlines before taking off.
The cockpit voice recording from the American plane was recorded during the six-hour flight to London and was lost forever.
Investigators said they tried several times to interview the American pilots, but the pilots refused on the advice of their union, which objected to the NTSB recording the interviews. The NTSB then took the highly unusual step of issuing a subpoena to force crew members to sit down for recorded interviews.
The pilots union, the Allied Pilots Association, had no immediate comment Monday on the NTSB documents.
The report renewed recommendations that the Federal Aviation Administration require better preservation of cockpit voice recordings. They run in loops that typically record old sounds after two hours. The FAA finally bowed to pressure from the NTSB late last year and announced that it would propose that recordings not be overwritten for 25 hours, but only on new airplanes.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn