American Airlines flight crew in JFK runway incursion will comply with NTSB subpoena
By Gregory Wallace and Ross Levitt, CNN
The American Airlines pilots involved in a near-collision on a runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport last month will comply with a subpoena to testify before the National Transportation Safety Board, their union said.
“The pilots intend to appear for their interviews in accordance with the subpoenas,” the Allied Pilots Association said in a statement.
“All parties to the investigation (other than the NTSB) are prohibited from speaking about the investigation while it is pending under NTSB rules,” the statement said.
The pilots had originally objected to testifying because the NTSB intended to record the interviews.
The NTSB responded by subpoenaing their testimony. The NTSB issued the subpoena last week.
What happened at JFK Airport in January
In a preliminary report, the NTSB says the American Airlines 777 crossed an active runway without clearance from air traffic control, causing a Delta 737 to abort its takeoff on Friday, January 13.
The report says the two aircraft came within 1,400 feet of each other.
As CNN has previously reported, the American Airlines flight continued on to London’s Heathrow Airport.
The flight voice recorders on both aircraft were overwritten, meaning investigators can’t hear what was said in the cockpit at the time of the incident.
3 close-call investigations
Federal safety investigators have opened inquiries into three runway close-call incidents involving an airliner in less than a month. The other two:
• The NTSB said Wednesday it is investigating a January 23 incident involving a United Airlines 777 jet and a smaller, single-engine cargo plane at Honolulu’s airport.
The United jet improperly crossed a runway at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport while the cargo aircraft was landing, the Federal Aviation Administration said. At the closest point, the aircraft were separated by 1,170 feet.
• Another incident occurred on February 5, when a FedEx pilot narrowly averted landing in Austin, Texas, atop a departing Southwest Airlines flight cleared to use the same runway. The planes were at one point about 100 feet apart, the NTSB said.
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