FILE – This photo shows the access road to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Aug. 15, 2003, in New York. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, File)
PA
Authorities are investigating a near-miss crash Friday night at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport between a plane crossing a runway and another preparing to take off.
“Delta 1943, cancel takeoff clearance! Delta 1943, cancel takeoff clearance!” an air traffic controller declares in an audio recording of Air Traffic Control communications after noticing the other plane , operated by American Airlines, crossed ahead.The recording was made by LiveATC, a website that monitors and publishes in-flight communications.
Then the Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 plane preparing to depart safely stopped on the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport while the other plane crossed ahead at around 8:45 p.m., the Administration said. Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) in a statement.
“I think the controller made a good decision to refuse takeoff,” said John Cox, a retired pilot and professor of aviation safety at the University of Southern California.
He explained that the rejected takeoff safety maneuver, which occurs when pilots abort takeoff and stop the plane, is one they are “very, very familiar with.”
“The pilots practice the rejected takeoff almost every time they get to the simulator,” he said.
The Delta plane came to a stop about 1,000 feet (300 meters) from where the American Airlines plane had crossed from an adjacent taxiway, according to the FAA statement.
The agency said Saturday that it will investigate the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board also said it was investigating what happened.
“They will listen again to all the transmissions between the American plane and air traffic control to see who misinterpreted what,” Cox said.
Email messages to Delta Airlines had not been returned.
American Air Lines declined to comment on the incident, saying it would direct all questions to the FAA.
Source: El Nuevo Herald
