The Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned Friday that it had subpoenaed the pilots of an American Airways aircraft that crossed in entrance of one other jet that had been cleared to take off final month at Kennedy Worldwide Airport. The company took the step after the pilots declined its request for electronically recorded interviews.
In line with a preliminary report on the shut name by the security board, the American Airways aircraft crossed a runway on Jan. 13 with out clearance from air visitors management. That compelled controllers to instruct pilots of a Delta Air Strains aircraft to abort their takeoff. The planes got here inside 1,400 ft of one another.
The union that represents American Airways pilots mentioned in a press release that it objected to digital audio recordings as a result of the follow might make pilots much less candid.
An interview that places pilots comfy “is essential to getting probably the most data in any security investigation,” Capt. Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the union, mentioned in an interview. In a press release, the union mentioned the security board had just lately begun requiring some witnesses to be electronically recorded.
However the security board mentioned in a press release that recording interviews was a “longstanding follow” and that its workers had recorded interviews in “quite a few previous investigations involving industrial airways.” The board mentioned it had instructed the American Airways pilots {that a} courtroom reporter would additionally file their testimony and supply them with a transcript that they may assessment for accuracy.
The American Airways crew have seven days to reply to the subpoenas, the company mentioned.
It mentioned it had reviewed written statements from the Delta crew, including that “their statements comprise ample data for N.T.S.B. investigative functions given their position within the incident.”
The cockpit recordings in each planes had been “overwritten,” the security board mentioned, that means that they had been taped over, leaving no audio file of what pilots in both aircraft mentioned to at least one one other throughout the incident. The tools that data cockpit conversations is designed to overwrite itself after two hours.
In its assertion, the security board famous that it really useful in 2018 that the Federal Aviation Administration require that cockpit voice recorders be able to recording at the very least 25 hours of audio.
Final week, a Southwest aircraft and a FedEx jet narrowly prevented a collision at Austin-Bergstrom Worldwide Airport in Texas.
