Taxiway Work Seen as Factor in Close Call at Kennedy
NY Times:
The crew of an Israeli jumbo jet that got lost in a rainstorm at Kennedy International Airport last July apparently did not know that one of the taxiways was closed for reconstruction, one factor that caused the plane to blunder into the path of a cargo jet that was about to take off, according to the chief Israeli investigator.
A continuing investigation into the near-collision also revealed that an airline official had ordered the crew to rewrite its report to play down the seriousness of the encounter.
As the jumbo jet, a Boeing 767, sat in the middle of Runway 22 Right on the night of July 6, with 262 passengers and crew members and enough fuel to fly to Tel Aviv, the crew believed it was on a taxiway rather than a runway, according to the investigator, Itzhak Raz.
The co-pilot of the passenger plane saw the cargo plane rumbling toward him but did not realize it was preparing to take off, and he radioed the tower to ask who was taxiing his way, Mr. Raz said.
"They were mis-oriented," said Mr. Raz, a condition he described as being worse than lost, because the crew was disoriented without knowing it. "They were so sure they were right, they didn't see the lights were different." To help prevent confusion, taxiway signs are black and yellow; runway signs are red and white.
A collision was averted by a series of chance factors, according to investigators. Planes taking off on that runway are often not airborne by the spot where the Israeli jet stopped. But the co-pilot of the cargo jet, at the controls that night, had started his takeoff roll from the beginning of the runway, spotted the passenger plane and then climbed at a very steep angle, missing it by less than 100 feet, by the cargo plane captain's estimate. Climbing that steeply was possible because the plane was empty.
According to Mr. Raz, the Israeli crew had looked at a map of the airport before leaving the terminal and decided to turn left at the second taxiway, Bravo, and follow it to the beginning of the runway. But the first taxiway, Alpha, was under reconstruction.
Its lights were turned off and the pavement itself had been torn out, he said, making the taxiway invisible to the crew of the jet, operated by Israir Airlines. So the crew passed Bravo, thinking it was Alpha, and prepared to turn left on Runway 22 Right, thinking it was Bravo, he said.
A third person in the Israir cockpit recognized the problem, a "relief pilot" who was to take a turn flying during the long flight across the Atlantic Ocean and Europe, to give the two others a chance to rest. Sitting in the "jump seat" at the back of the cockpit, he reached forward, shoved the throttles open and shouted to get off the runway, Mr. Raz said, but the captain, still oblivious, yanked the throttle closed again.
When the crew arrived back in Tel Aviv, the three men composed a report describing the near-collision, but an Israir executive, the vice president for operations, ordered them to rewrite it "to reduce the severity," Mr. Raz said. So the report submitted to the Israeli authorities said they had passed near another plane that was taking off, not that the other plane had flown directly over them.
Mr. Raz said he was first alerted to the seriousness of the encounter by an article in The New York Times on July 21. The misleading changes in the original report were first disclosed by an Israeli television news program, "Uvda."
Israir, a new airline, began flying to Kennedy last March, with temporary permission from the Israeli government; it is seeking permanent permission.
The vice president has been removed from his job, and a hearing is pending, Mr. Raz said. Two Israeli crew members were demoted and sent for retraining, he said.
Mr. Raz, who was in Washington on Friday to brief the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, said in an interview afterward that his investigation was continuing. The purpose of the investigation, he said, is not to find fault but to take steps to make similar mistakes less likely.
A spokeswoman for the F.A.A., Laura J. Brown, said her agency was waiting for the complete report by Mr. Raz and an Israeli board of investigators.
The crew of an Israeli jumbo jet that got lost in a rainstorm at Kennedy International Airport last July apparently did not know that one of the taxiways was closed for reconstruction, one factor that caused the plane to blunder into the path of a cargo jet that was about to take off, according to the chief Israeli investigator.
A continuing investigation into the near-collision also revealed that an airline official had ordered the crew to rewrite its report to play down the seriousness of the encounter.
As the jumbo jet, a Boeing 767, sat in the middle of Runway 22 Right on the night of July 6, with 262 passengers and crew members and enough fuel to fly to Tel Aviv, the crew believed it was on a taxiway rather than a runway, according to the investigator, Itzhak Raz.
The co-pilot of the passenger plane saw the cargo plane rumbling toward him but did not realize it was preparing to take off, and he radioed the tower to ask who was taxiing his way, Mr. Raz said.
"They were mis-oriented," said Mr. Raz, a condition he described as being worse than lost, because the crew was disoriented without knowing it. "They were so sure they were right, they didn't see the lights were different." To help prevent confusion, taxiway signs are black and yellow; runway signs are red and white.
A collision was averted by a series of chance factors, according to investigators. Planes taking off on that runway are often not airborne by the spot where the Israeli jet stopped. But the co-pilot of the cargo jet, at the controls that night, had started his takeoff roll from the beginning of the runway, spotted the passenger plane and then climbed at a very steep angle, missing it by less than 100 feet, by the cargo plane captain's estimate. Climbing that steeply was possible because the plane was empty.
According to Mr. Raz, the Israeli crew had looked at a map of the airport before leaving the terminal and decided to turn left at the second taxiway, Bravo, and follow it to the beginning of the runway. But the first taxiway, Alpha, was under reconstruction.
Its lights were turned off and the pavement itself had been torn out, he said, making the taxiway invisible to the crew of the jet, operated by Israir Airlines. So the crew passed Bravo, thinking it was Alpha, and prepared to turn left on Runway 22 Right, thinking it was Bravo, he said.
A third person in the Israir cockpit recognized the problem, a "relief pilot" who was to take a turn flying during the long flight across the Atlantic Ocean and Europe, to give the two others a chance to rest. Sitting in the "jump seat" at the back of the cockpit, he reached forward, shoved the throttles open and shouted to get off the runway, Mr. Raz said, but the captain, still oblivious, yanked the throttle closed again.
When the crew arrived back in Tel Aviv, the three men composed a report describing the near-collision, but an Israir executive, the vice president for operations, ordered them to rewrite it "to reduce the severity," Mr. Raz said. So the report submitted to the Israeli authorities said they had passed near another plane that was taking off, not that the other plane had flown directly over them.
Mr. Raz said he was first alerted to the seriousness of the encounter by an article in The New York Times on July 21. The misleading changes in the original report were first disclosed by an Israeli television news program, "Uvda."
Israir, a new airline, began flying to Kennedy last March, with temporary permission from the Israeli government; it is seeking permanent permission.
The vice president has been removed from his job, and a hearing is pending, Mr. Raz said. Two Israeli crew members were demoted and sent for retraining, he said.
Mr. Raz, who was in Washington on Friday to brief the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, said in an interview afterward that his investigation was continuing. The purpose of the investigation, he said, is not to find fault but to take steps to make similar mistakes less likely.
A spokeswoman for the F.A.A., Laura J. Brown, said her agency was waiting for the complete report by Mr. Raz and an Israeli board of investigators.
posted by at 10:36 PM
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