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The pilots did not realize they had hit something until they returned to the airport.
An American Airlines Airbus A321 veered to the left on takeoff, hitting the ground, but the plane continued into the sky as shaken pilots tried to figure out what was wrong, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report published in Friday.
Investigators on board concluded that the plane’s captain was responsible for the April 2019 incident by applying too much rudder while attempting to take off in a crosswind.
None of the 110 people on board were injured, and the Los Angeles-bound plane quickly returned to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. But the captain and flight attendant later described the incident as a “near death” experience. The damaged aircraft was later scrapped.
American said in a statement that it is reviewing the findings.
“The safety of our customers and crew members comes first at American,” the airline said. “It guides every decision we make and every action we take.”
Transcripts of conversations between the captain and his first officer show how the two were confused and did not realize how badly the plane was damaged as they continued to climb out of New York.
“Are we going on?” the first officer asked, according to a transcript released by the NTSB. “…I thought we were gone.”
“Well it feels normal now,” said the captain a few minutes later.
The first officer again brought up the idea of going back.
“You know, politically it might not be a bad idea.” [to] come back,” he said, according to the transcript. “… I thought it was over. I thought we were going down.
The pilot eventually agreed and turned the controls over to the first officer, later telling investigators that he knew the first officer was thinking more clearly than he was.
A flight attendant shared the first hint of the extent of the damage, saying a business class passenger noticed something wrong with the wing. As soon as the plane returned to the ground, the extent of the damage became clear.
“Dude, there’s a lot of damage on that leading edge on that left side. Bad damage,” said a crew member on the ramp, according to the transcript. “I’m glad you made it.”
American Airlines later found the 323-foot scrape mark the wing left on the runway and discovered it had also hit a distance marker. Images included in the NTSB report show a disfigured wingtip with part of the marker stuck in it.
In a statement afterward, one of the flight attendants on the plane called the pilots heroes.
“Our near-death experience was terrifying and I am personally so grateful to our excellent pilots who were able to regain control of the aircraft, continue our take-off and land us safely again,” the statement said.
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