Delta flight forced to hit brakes before takeoff in Mexico City as another jet lands on same runway
Aeromexico Flight 1691, arriving from the city of Aguascalientes, touched down on Monday as Atlanta-bound Delta flight 590 was accelerating to initiate takeoff at 7:28 a.m. local time, according to Delta and preliminary flight data from the tracking site flightradar24. The data shows that the Delta Boeing 737-800 reached 62 knots, or about 71 miles per hour, before pilots stopped the plane and halted their takeoff.
The Delta pilots exited the runway and returned to the gate, the airline said. The plane received additional fuel and eventually departed for Atlanta at 9:42 a.m. The flight carrying 144 passengers and six crew members landed safely in Atlanta at 3:20 p.m. ET, according to Delta.
"Because nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, Delta will fully cooperate with authorities as the circumstances around this flight are investigated. We appreciate the flight crew's actions to maintain situational awareness and act quickly – part of Delta's extensive training," a Delta spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News.
In the wake of the incident, Delta says it filed reports with the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and Mexico's Federal Civil Aviation Agency, which is the country's aviation regulator.
Aeromexico said it is working closely with the corresponding authorities to conduct an investigation. "At Aeromexico, the safety of our customers and employees is, and will always be, our highest priority," the airline's statement said.
Mexican aviation authorities had no comment when contacted by CBS News Tuesday.
Days before the incident in Mexico, the pilot of a SkyWest flight — which was operating as Delta Connection — apologized to passengers after performing what he described as an "aggressive maneuver" while approaching a runway in Minot, North Dakota, where the plane was set for landing. The pilot said that he had performed the maneuver to avoid a U.S. Air Force B-52 Bomber that appeared to be flying along "a converging course" with his plane.
The Air Force says its flight crew was in communication with air traffic control but was not told about airliner.
SkyWest said the flight, from Minneapolis, had 76 passengers and four crew members on board.
The airline and the FAA are investigating the incident.
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New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Live Updates: Hearing on D.C. Plane Crash Homes In on Incorrect Altitude Readings
The fuselage of the American Airlines plane involved in a collision with a Black Hawk helicopter was recovered from the Potomac River days after the crash. On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board will convene for three days of hearings into the Jan. 29 midair collision near Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people. The N.T.S.B., an independent government agency that investigates transportation accidents, has already issued its initial findings on the facts and timeline of the episode, in which an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into an American Airlines commercial flight above the Potomac River. The board's final report, which will identify the cause of the accident, is not expected until next year. But this week's hearings, which will include sworn testimony from witnesses to the accident and parties to the crash, including the Army, will provide the clearest picture yet of what went wrong. Here are some of the key questions that have yet to be answered: Why was the Black Hawk flying too high? According to the N.T.S.B.'s preliminary report, the pilot flying the Black Hawk, Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, was told to descend to 200 feet, which was the mandated altitude for helicopters on the route. Yet she evidently had difficulty maintaining that level, putting the Black Hawk in a position where it crashed into the plane at roughly 300 feet. Was Captain Lobach having trouble controlling the helicopter? Or were her altimeters — instruments that measure altitude — not working properly? What was the conversation aboard the Black Hawk? The N.T.S.B. has provided a concise and paraphrased version of what it deems to be key moments from the cockpit voice recordings aboard the Army helicopter, which was carrying a crew of three: Captain Lobach; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, her instructor on the training flight; and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O'Hara, the crew chief, or technical expert. What we don't know is whether the crew members had any idea how close they were to a catastrophic event, or how concerned they were about either their altitude or a potential problem with their altimeters, which were providing differing readings to Captain Lobach and Mr. Eaves. How concerned did they seem about these factors? Is there any evidence of a last-minute attempt to change altitude or course? What was going on in the air traffic control tower at National Airport? Investigators with the N.T.S.B. have found that five air traffic controllers were working various positions at the time of the crash. However, one of the positions had been combined with another to handle both helicopter and airplane traffic hours earlier. The Federal Aviation Administration, which runs the National Airport control tower, has described the staffing that night as 'not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.' The helicopter position is not typically combined with another position until 9:30 in the evening, people briefed on the practice have told The New York Times, but a supervisor in the tower that night allowed a controller to leave early, prompting the early combination, those people have also said. When, precisely, did that person leave and why? And was the controller who was left performing both positions feeling fatigued or overtaxed by the double duty? How big of a problem was Runway 33? While the American Airlines flight was in its final stretch, the control tower asked its pilots to pivot their course from Runway 1, National Airport's most commonly used arrivals runway, to an alternative, Runway 33. The pilots agreed, putting the airplane on a landing trajectory that risked placing it dangerously close to approaching helicopter traffic. The N.T.S.B. has said that Runway 33 is used for flight arrivals only 4 percent of the time. Austin Roth, a retired Army Black Hawk instructor pilot who flew those routes many times, said in an interview with The Times that he doubted that the Army crew would have been prepared for a Runway 33 landing, given that runway's rare use. Considering all those factors, should the American Airlines crew have refused to land on Runway 33? Was the Black Hawk crew aware of the Runway 33 traffic path it should have been watching? More broadly, why did the F.A.A. allow helicopters to even operate on the route the Black Hawk was flying, when Runway 33 was in use for a landing? Would a real-time aircraft location broadcasting system have made a difference? Army officials sought, and received, permission to fly helicopters in the National Airport airspace without using a system known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out, or ADS-B Out. Concerned lawmakers, including Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who is the chairman of the Senate's transportation committee, have flagged the lack of ADS-B as a potentially key contributor to the crash, but the Army has insisted it would not have helped. Is there evidence suggesting that the system would, in fact, have played a preventive role? An affirmative answer could have broad implications for the Army unit that operates flights in the area in the future.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Small airplane crash near I-65 in Greenwood leaves pilot dead
(This story will be updated.) While watching the aftermath of a small plane crash in Greenwood, Frank Williams said he was the first on the scene. The businessman had been driving down East Main Street near Interstate 65, speaking to one of his employees, when something caught his eye in the sky. He noticed the plane banking to the left before it dove and went into a spin. Banking in aviation is a maneuver where an aircraft tilts its wings to one side, allowing it to turn. The plane crashed on a hill near a small creek behind a Circle K gas station, next to the La Rosa Mexican Restaurant. Williams pulled into a parking lot and got out of his car. "I remember saying on the phone, 'Hey, this plane's crashing, I gotta get off and call 911,'" Williams said. "There was no explosion, and there was no fire. I pulled right up, and I could smell fuel. As I got close to the plane, I could tell there wasn't a survivor." Officials have confirmed one person is dead after the small plane crashed at Main Street and Sheek Road, which is less than a mile from Indy South Greenwood Airport. At 10:47 a.m. on July 30, Greenwood's fire and police departments, and Indiana State Police responded to a report of an aircraft crash at Main Street and South Park Boulevard. At the scene, firefighters found a small aircraft had gone down directly behind the Circle K gas station at 1183 E. Main St. The pilot, the plane's sole occupant, was pronounced dead at the scene. Tyler Swardson with Greenwood Fire said their hazardous materials response team is on site to address any potential hazards. "This could have been a lot worse with it going into the gas station or anywhere else," Swardson said, "But our thoughts go out to the family." No information has been released about the plane's origin, destination or the cause of the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will be handling the investigation. Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON. Public Safety Reporter, Noe Padilla contributed to this article. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pilot is dead after a small plane crashed near I-65 in Greenwood Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
NTSB finds Army chopper in fatal midair crash was above altitude limit
Investigators probing the January midair collision of a passenger plane and an Army helicopter over Washington that killed 67 people found the chopper was flying higher than it should have been and the altitude readings were inaccurate. The details came out of the first day of National Transportation Safety Board hearings in Washington, where investigators aim to uncover insights into what caused the crash between the American Airlines plane from Wichita, Kansas, and the Black Hawk helicopter over Ronald Reagan National Airport. The board opened the three days of hearings by showing an animation and playing audio and video from the night of the collision, as well as questioning witnesses and investigators about how the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army may have contributed to nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001. It's likely too early for the board to identify what caused the crash. The January incident was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. Animation, altimeter discrepancy The hearing opened Wednesday with a video animation showing where the helicopter and airliner were leading up to the collision. It showed how the helicopter flew above the 200 feet (61 meters) altitude limit on the helicopter route along the Potomac River before colliding with the plane. Investigators said Wednesday the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters. Dan Cooper with Sikorsky helicopters said that when the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was designed in the 1970s, it used a style of altimeter that was common at the time. Newer helicopters have air data computers that didn't exist back then that help provide more accurate altitude readings. Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that she wouldn't find an 80 to 100 foot discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter alarming because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Below 500 feet (152 meters), Lewis said she would be checking both instruments and cross referencing them. DC helicopter route permanently closed after fatal Black Hawk crash She said as long as an altimeter registers an altitude within 70 feet of the published altitude before takeoff the altimeter is considered accurate under the checklists. Army officials said a discrepancy of 70 to 100 feet (21 to 30 meters) between the Black Hawk's altimeters is within the acceptable range because pilots are expected to maintain their altitude plus or minus 100 feet. The greater concern is that the FAA approved routes around Reagan airport that included such small separation distances between helicopters and planes when planes are landing. 'The fact that we have less than 500 foot separation is a concern for me,' the Army's Scott Rosengren said. But Rosengren said that 'if he was king for a day' he would immediately retire all the older Black Hawk models like the one involved in this crash and replace them with newer versions of the helicopters. Previously, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy highlighted that the published helicopter routes around Washington D.C. would allow planes and helicopters to routinely come within 75 feet of each other during landing. Army officials said Wednesday that the flight manual for these older Black Hawks doesn't highlight the discrepancies in altimeters that has been documented previously, but typical flight separations are at least 500 feet (152 meters) around airports. Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it. The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash. Investigations have already shown the FAA failed to recognize a troubling history of 85 near misses around Reagan airport in the years before the collision, and that the Army's helicopters routinely flew around the nation's capitol with a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned off. Aviation attorney Bob Clifford, who is working to file one of the first lawsuits against the government next month, said he hopes NTSB will look beyond the immediate factors that caused this crash to highlight the bigger ongoing concerns in the crowded Washington airspace. Proposed changes Even though the final NTSB report won't be released until sometime next year, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation Tuesday to require all aircraft operators to use both forms of ADS-B, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, the technology to broadcast aircraft location data to other planes and air traffic controllers. Most aircraft today are equipped with ADS-B Out equipment but the airlines would have to add the more comprehensive ADS-B In technology to their planes. 'There cannot be a double standard in aviation safety,' Cruz said. 'We should not tolerate special exceptions for military training flights, operating in congested air space.' The legislation would revoke an exemption on ADS-B transmission requests for Department of Defense aircrafts. It also would require the FAA to evaluate helicopter routes near airports and require the Army Inspector General to review the Army's aviation safety practices. Homendy said her agency has been recommending that move for decades after several other crashes. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that while he'd like to discuss 'a few tweaks,' the legislation is 'the right approach.' He also suggested that the previous administration 'was asleep at the wheel' amid dozens of near-misses in the airspace around Washington's airspace. 'Fact-finding proceeding' Homendy said the hearings over the next few days will be a 'fact-finding proceeding.' The NTSB will also post thousands of pages of evidence from the crash investigation online. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said that he expects 'we're going to have some very uncomfortable conversations over the next two and a half days' but that 'they need to be had in the clear light of day – and simply put the best interest of the traveling public ahead of any of our personal interests, perhaps.' The hearings in Washington involve NTSB board members, investigators and witnesses for organizations involved in the crash. Federal officials have also raised concerns over the nation's outdated and understaffed air traffic control system. During January's mid-air crash above Washington, one controller was handing both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at the busy airport. Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam, Ben Finley and Rio Yamat contributed to this story.
