The pilots of an American Airlines plane taxied across the wrong runway last year in New York — into the path of another jetliner that was taking off — after the captain became distracted and confused about takeoff instructions and the co-pilot lost track of their plane’s location, according to documents released Monday.
Disaster was averted because an air traffic controller — using an expletive — shouted at 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 is continuing, and the board said it has not yet determined a probable cause for the close call.
The nighttime incident was among 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 London-bound American Airlines Boeing 777 took a wrong turn on a taxiway alongside two perpendicular runways. The crew had first planned for a takeoff from runway 31L. However, they later got instructions from a controller and a message on their cockpit computer telling them to taxi across 31L and take off from runway 4L.In later interviews, “all three pilots (on the American Airlines plane) said they understood at that time that (the flight) would be departing runway 4L,” according to the NTSB.Instead, they crossed 4L just as a Delta Boeing 737 began its takeoff roll down the same runway.
The captain, Michael Graber, said that as the plane crossed the middle of runway 4L, he saw red runway lights turn on — the lights warn pilots when it’s not safe to be on the runway.
“All of a sudden I saw that red glow and I just — right away I said something — that ain’t right,” he told investigators. “I didn’t know what was happening, but I was thinking something’s wrong.”
The captain added power to speed acrossGraber told investigators that he heard and understood the directions from the controller but got distracted by a heavy workload and, in his mind, might have gone back to thinking they were taking off from the other runway.
The co-pilot, Traci Gonzalez, said she knew the entire time that they were supposed to cross runway 31L, “but she was unaware of the airplane’s position when the captain taxied onto runway 4L,” investigators wrote. “She knew they were approaching a runway, but she did not realize they were approaching runway 4L.”The co-pilot also blamed distractions, including an unusually high number of weather alerts.
The third person in the cockpit, Jeffrey Wagner, a relief pilot for the long international flight, said he was “heads down” and didn’t know where the plane was as it taxied on to the runway. He said that when they crossed the wrong runway and he saw a plane to his right, he initially thought it 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 about 1,000 feet (300 meters) apart — not a comforting margin in aviation-safety terms.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 on runway 31L. The crew did not report the incident to American Airlines before taking off.United Airlines plane ran off the runway in Houston, Texas, on Friday, the latest incident in a week of safety issues for the airline, all involving Boeing planes, that included a tire falling off, a flaming engine and allegedly “stuck” controls.
The Boeing 737 Max 8, carrying 160 passengers and six crew, was landing at George Bush intercontinental airport on Friday morning when it “left the pavement and entered the grass” while exiting the runway for the gate, airport officials said in an interview.
In a separate statement, United Airlines said: “After landing, UA2477 exited the taxiway into a grassy area. Customers deplaned using air stairs and are being bused to the terminal.” It added that all passengers were safe.On Thursday, a tire fell off a United Airlines plane seconds after it had taken off from San Francisco international airport. The tire, one of six on the left side main landing gear assembly, dropped into a staff parking lot, where it hit a car, broke the rear window, then tore through a fence and rolled to a halt.
An airport spokesperson said there were no injuries and that the Japan-bound Boeing 777, which was carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members, landed safely in Los Angeles afterward. The Federal Aviation Administration said it will investigate.
United Airlines said that it “quickly arranged” for a new airplane to bring passengers to Osaka and did so later on Thursday evening.We’re grateful to our pilots and flight attendants for their professionalism in managing this situation. We’re also grateful to our teams on the ground who were waiting with a tug to move the aircraft soon after it landed and to our teams in the airport who assisted customers upon their arrival,” United said in a statement. “We will work with customers as well as with the owners of the damaged vehicles in SFO to ensure their needs are addressed.”
The tire incident itself came less than a week after passengers on a United Airlines flight from Houston, Texas, to Fort Myers, Florida, saw orange flames bursting from one of the plane’s engines 20 minutes after takeoff. The Boeing 737-900 made a safe emergency landing at George Bush intercontinental airport.
The incident seems to be a compressor stall, which occurs when there’s a disruption of airflow in the engine prompting it to backfire, “but doesn’t mean the engine itself is on fire”, NBC News said.On Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report into a 6 February incident in which pilots of a Boeing 737 Max 8 said the controls jammed as they tried to land. It said the pilots reported “‘stuck’ rudder pedals during the landing rollout”, according to CNN.
Boeing declined to answer questions, directing comment to United Airlines.
Alan Price, a former chief pilot for Delta Air Lines, told the Associated Press that a loose tire is typically related to maintenance, and is not the manufacturer’s fault.
John Cox, a retired pilot and aviation safety professor at the University of Southern California, expressed similar sentiments, saying to the AP: “I don’t see any impact for Boeing as it was a United maintenance team that changed the tire.”