An American Airlines Pilot Almost Crashed A Plane, And The Transcript Is Shocking

There was a serious incident at JFK in April. The plane that was involved was scrapped. The final report of the investigators has been released and it is pretty damning for the captain. The transcript of what the pilots were talking to each other is shocking.

American Airlines plane’s terrifying takeoff from JFK

The basics of the accident should be covered first. American Airlines operated flight AA300 from New York to Los Angeles. One of American's "A321T" aircraft had just 102 seats and was in a fancy three cabin configuration. There were 101 passengers and eight crew on the plane.

The left wing of the plane hit something as it rolled to the left while taking off. The pilots were worried that the plane would flip over when the plane banked to the left.

The pilots decided to return to the airport as the plane passed through 20,000 feet. The audio between the pilots and air traffic controllers is standard, and not as interesting as the transcript that has been released from the cockpit, which I will cover below.

The left wing of the plane was damaged in some way. The left wingtip was six inches higher than the right wingtip, according to an examination. The plane was scrapped and used for other purposes. That shows you how serious this incident was.

Pilot error blamed for American Airlines incident

TheNTSB released its final report about the incident. There was probable cause of the incident determined by investigators. The plane had a crosswind and the captain used the rudder too much.

“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 feared that the plane was going to roll over after it banked to the left. The first officer applied a right aileron and back pressure after the captain said he couldn't control it. One wonders how this would end without that.

The crosswind wasn't bad. The company has a 35-knot crosswind limit. There were no problems with the plane.

There are strange parallels between this flight and another. The American Airlines flight AA587 that crashed in November 2001 was an A300. The plane that took off from the same runway was operated by the same company as the one that flew AA300. The pilot's excessive use of rudder caused the crash.

American Airlines cockpit transcript is shocking

Rarely do we hear what pilots are talking about. Cockpit voice recorders only record for a short time. They only listen after a serious incident. The transcript from this flight has been released and it could make some people uneasy about flying.

The pilots in the flight deck were very experienced.

• The 58-year-old captain had nearly 20,000 flight hours, with around 3,000 hours on Airbus A320 family aircraft
• The first officer was the same age, and had 15,500 flight hours, with around 2,000 hours on Airbus A320 family aircraft

This was a crew that had been together for a long time between the captain and first officer. It's just about all you could hope for with over 35,000 hours of flying.

When there is a "#" in the transcript, that means there was an expletive used.

The conversation was right after the plane took off.

First officer: “Your airplane, your airplane, your airplane. I don’t know what’s goin’ on.”Captain: “What the # (happened)?”First officer: “I don’t know. Ah the engines all go, good.”Captain: “The # ju- it just # rolled on me.”First officer: “What the # is that? Are we continuing? #. These girls will never fly withus again. I thought we were gone.”First officer: “That scared the # outta me, I thought we were gone.”

Captain: “The # airplane just rolled on me dude.”