An American Airlines Pilot Almost Crashed A Plane, And The Transcript Is Shocking
In April 2023, an American Airlines plane had a serious takeoff incident at JFK. The incident was so bad that the plane involved ended up being scrapped. Over three years later, there’s an update, as investigators have released their final report, which is pretty damning for the captain. Perhaps the most shocking part is the transcript of what the pilots were saying to one another.
American Airlines plane’s terrifying takeoff from JFK
First let’s cover some basics of the accident. On April 10, 2023, an American Airlines Airbus A321 was operating flight AA300 from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX). This was one of American’s “A321T” aircraft, in a swanky three cabin configuration with just 102 seats. The flight was carrying 109 people, including 101 passengers and eight crew.
Long story short, the plane “rolled” to the left as it took off, causing the left wing to hit something during takeoff. It’s believed that the plane banked around 30 degrees to the left, to the point that the pilots were worried the plane would flip over.
Pilot error blamed for American Airlines incident
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report about the incident. Investigators determined that the probable cause of this incident was pilot error. Specifically, the plane had a crosswind during takeoff, and the captain used the rudder excessively:
“The captain’s excessive left rudder pedal input during the takeoff ground roll, which caused a large heading deviation and a left roll upon rotation that resulted in the left wingtip striking the ground.”
The first officer claimed that the plane had banked around 30 degrees to the left, and feared that the plane was going to “roll over.” During takeoff the captain said “I can’t control it,” at which point the first officer grabbed his sidestick, applied right aileron and back pressure, and the airplane began to climb. Without that, one has to wonder how this would have ended.
For context, the crosswind wasn’t too bad. It was a roughly 14-17 knot crosswind from the right, well below the company’s 35-knot crosswind limitation. No faults were found with the plane as such.
Now, I can’t help put point out the bizarre parallels here between this flight and another one. Remember American Airlines flight AA587, which was an Airbus A300 that crashed shortly after 9/11, in November 2001? That plane took off from the same exact runway (and coincidentally that was operated by an Airbus A300, while this was flight number AA300). There was wake turbulence on departure, and the cause of the crash was the pilot’s excessive use of rudder.
American Airlines cockpit transcript is shocking
Rarely do we get to hear what pilots are actually discussing in tense situations. While there are cockpit voice recorders, they only record for around two hours. So only after a serious incident are they ever listened to. Well, in this case the entire transcript from this flight has been released, and it might make some people uneasy about flying.
I think it’s important to emphasize that both pilots in the flight deck were very experienced:
The cause was determined to be the captain’s excessive use of left rudder during takeoff. And it seems that the captain had a history of using too much rudder, based on the transcript, during which he asked the first officer if he had the same issue when applying “full controls.”
It’s quite shocking to hear a captain with nearly 20,000 hours claim that he hates flying the plane if there’s any sort of a crosswind, and that he doesn’t know how a lot of the computers work.
It sounds like the first officer was significantly more competent in this case. Not only did his inputs during the takeoff roll potentially help avoid catastrophe, but he also said that he didn’t have experience with going “full controls,” because that’s not something you’re supposed to do with a moderate crosswind, well within operating limits.
This incident could have ended very differently, it seems. I’m sure I’m not the only one now wondering whether it’s common for pilots with 20,000 hours to act like this, or if this was just a very bad apple.