A transcript has been released of a jaw-dropping conversation between two pilots on an American Airlines plane that they feared had almost crashed on take-off.
On 10 April 2019, the Airbus A321T – carrying 101 passengers and eight cabin crew members – was involved in the near-miss as it was departing JFK airport in New York.
The plane was found to be so damaged that it was scrapped to be used for parts.
Three years later, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators have released their final report into flight AA300, revealing the stunning conversation between the captain and his first officer as it happened.
According to the report, the plane “rolled” to the left during takeoff amid a 14-17 knot crosswind, with its left wing hitting a runway sign and then the ground, as a result of the captain’s “excessive” use of the left rudder pedal.
The incident, which happened at about 8.40pm local time, was so serious that the pilots – who were both 58 years old and highly experienced – feared that the plane would flip over.
It was only when the captain said “I can’t control it” that the first officer intervened by applying more power to the aileron, on the tip of the right wing, and more back pressure to stabilise the aircraft.
Amongst other quotes from the expletive-heavy transcript, the first officer said to the captain: “That scared the **** out of me. I thought we were gone.”
The captain replied: “The ******* airplane just rolled on me dude.”
The captain then complains about the crosswind, saying: “******* hate flying this thing with any kind of crosswind.
“**** me, I’m going to take some time off after that **** ... holy **** I’m not working tomorrow.”
A flight attendant then calls the pair to find out what happened, and the captain complains that the Airbus computer systems on board are too complicated to fully understand.
He said: “**** Airbus man. This is the kinda **** we don’t like about it. You know, there’s so many computers we don’t, we don’t know what it ******* does sometimes.”
Then the pilots discussed among themselves whether to return to JFK airport or continue toward Los Angeles.
As the plane climbed to 20,000 feet, the pilots informed air traffic controllers of their plan to make the 15-minute journey back to JFK.
It appears their decision was partly made because of “politics” and to avoid any further trouble for themselves.
The first officer said: “I’m just thinking with that kind of an extreme manoeuvre, you know just, for the politics of it all, it might not be a bad idea go back, because, these girls (flight attendants) will never fly with us again, I’m telling you.
“I mean that scared me that bad, that I’ve never been so scared in an aeroplane I don’t think. I mean I wasn’t that scared because like, but I thought it was over. I thought we were going down.”
The first officer later says: “Or maybe call maintenance to cover your ***. And tell them what happened and see what they – or just, I don’t know.”
The captain says: “You know, I think you’re right.”
The first officer says: “I think you gotta cover your *** on this one.”
A bit later in the conversation, the captain says he wants the maintenance teams to “pull all the **** out and see what the **** happened.”
When calling the air traffic controllers, the captain says that he does not want to declare it an emergency “as long as the aeroplane is flying”.
The flight attendant tells the pilots that a number of passengers were concerned about what had just happened.
According to the transcript, they say: “A guy just came up here and he wanted to know what the **** that was.
“[He] flew two hundred million miles and he’s like ‘I’ve never felt anything like that’ and I didn’t say anything to him because that’s on you.”
The captain then addressed the passengers on the tannoy, but blamed the computers for the incident.
He said that they had “an issue with the aeroplane involving the flight control computers” and that they would be returning to JFK to “let the maintenance folks take it over”.
There was “no cause for alarm” as the “faulty system [had been] isolated,” he also told passengers.
There were no reported injuries from the incident, but that ground staff at JFK said that the left wing of the plane had “bad damage”.
The last words in the transcript show that a member of the ground staff told the pilots: “I’m glad you guys are okay.”
The report found that “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.”
It found the probable cause of the incident to be pilot error.
The captain had logged nearly 20,000 flight hours, with around 3,000 hours on the Airbus A320 family of aircraft.
The first officer had logged 15,500 flight hours, with around 2,000 hours on the Airbus A320 group.
An American Airlines spokesperson said: “The safety of our customers and team members comes above all else at American. It guides every decision we make and action we take.
“We appreciate the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) thorough investigation and report. We are reviewing the NTSB’s report and recommendations and will closely examine if any changes are needed in training or procedures.”
