Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Egypt Air Pilot Causes Near Collision At JFK Airport - IGNORED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL DIRECTIONS - UPDATED CONTINUALLY

Egypt Air is the same airline for which a pilot purposely flew a jef-full of 217 passengers straight into the sea while intoning "Tawkalt ala Allah" ("I rely on Allah").

UPDATED AND BUMPED TO THE TOP FOR NOW

From NBC News:
Air traffic control tower audio conveys the frightening exchange between the tower at John F. Kennedy International Airport and a Lufthansa flight as the airbus came dangerously close to colliding with another jet.
The incident happened at about 6:30 p.m. Monday when an EgyptAir pilot apparently did not follow air traffic control instructions to hold short of its taxiway and veered into the path of the other plane, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Egypt Air 986, a B777, did not follow ATC instructions to hold short of Taxiway D. As a result, air traffic canceled the takeoff clearance for Lufthansa 411, an A346 on Runway 22R," FAA spokesman spokesman Jay Blackman said.

The Lufthansa flight had been cleared for take-off moments before the EgyptAir plane veered into its path, and the pilots had to slam on the brakes to avoid a crash, reports The New York Post

"Cancel take off! Cancel take-off plans!" shouted an air controller who saw the Munich-bound Lufthansa plane barreling toward the EgyptAir flight.

It wasn't immediately clear how close the planes came to each other. 

"The closest proximity still is being determined as part of our ongoing investigation," Blackman said.
The Lufthansa plane was taken off the runway for a brake inspection following the incident, and ended up departing about an hour and 40 minutes behind schedule. It landed safely in Munich.

A Lufthansa spokesperson said the jet was carrying 286 passengers, plus crew, at the time of the incident. EgyptAir declined the Post's requests for comment, but the paper reports the airline's jets can carry up to 346 passengers in addition to crew.
UPDATES -
"Egypt Air 986, a B777, did not follow ATC " One wonders if the passengers of either flight have any awareness of the 'near miss' in which they were unwittingly assigned as sacrificial pawns. Investigators are looking at air traffic communications and radar replays. Is there any further investigation of this Egypt Air pilot? If not, why not?
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 3:24:00 PM  
 
"Those two were coming together," radioed an unidentified pilot who witnessed the near-disaster. A few minutes later, a pilot aboard a Virgin America flight arriving from Los Angeles piped in: "That was quite a show."
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 3:27:00 PM  
 
an EgyptAir plane that made a wrong turn into its path, sources told The Post.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Egypt Air 986, a B777, did not follow ATC "
One wonders if the passengers of either flight have any awareness of the 'near miss' in which they were unwittingly assigned as sacrificial pawns.
Investigators are looking at air traffic communications and radar replays.


Is there any further investigation of this Egypt Air pilot? If not, why not?

Anonymous said...

"Those two were coming together," radioed an unidentified pilot who witnessed the near-disaster.

A few minutes later, a pilot aboard a Virgin America flight arriving from Los Angeles piped in: "That was quite a show."

Anonymous said...

an EgyptAir plane that made a wrong turn into its path, sources told The Post.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/near_miss_on_jfk_runway_kLWyQHsO3KS1ncroiRTx6J#ixzz1Q10brxfK

christian soldier said...

something smells--
just posted my take--
then I some here :-)
C-CS

christian soldier said...

come here

cjk said...

Ticker-Tape parade for the pilot in Cairo?

Rufus T. Firefly said...

This is the exact same flight that crashed. This one was coming into JFK from LAX. They changed the flight number because airlines do not re-use #'s for any flight that crashes.

Anonymous said...

Quote from pilots of America blog comment:
comment #7 "The female controller is talking to "Egypt Air 986 Heavy" The male controller you can hear in the background is talking to the Lufthansa. On LiveATC.net (registration required to hear the tapes) they have both the ground recording (Egypt Air), and the tower recording (Lufthansa). Egypt Air acknowledges the hold short instruction, but doesn't actually comply causing the Lufthansa to abort the takeoff. The communication between the controller and Egypt Air seemed very clear, but still resulted in a runway incursion.
****************
link to recording of LIVE ATC audio clip via NBC [read the comments to the thread at NBC . . .refreshing]

Anonymous said...

One of the comments by Chris Robinson at the NBC post linked above states:
"The NTSB should review the CVR on EA986 for a "Tawkalt ala Allah" or two at the critical moment..."

"Tawkalt ala Allah" meaning "I rely on God." Interesting to see if this is followed up.