Originally Posted by
ATC Watcher
I must admit I do not have the courage to read the 294 pages of the crew interviews on the Docket, but reading the msn article resume , I find it noteworthy to read that 2 of the 3 crew on that aircraft apparently admitted they did not know where they were on the airport. during taxi. There might be reasons for this distraction or lack of monitoring but this needs serious addressing by the airline I would say.
No courage required, just time. Both pilot and ATC interviews worth the read. Please don’t trust the typically abysmal media reporting to form an opinion.
But regarding 2 of 3 pilots being somewhat out of the loop, correct. CA inexplicably reverted to original departure/taxi brief for 31L even though he acknowledged being aware of and briefing the revised 4L departure. IOW, he was driving the aircraft where he intended and believed he was cleared to go. FO was head down at a critical point (B/J/K intersection) doing admin and believed aircraft was crossing 31L as authorized when she went head up. FB was head down doing admin from mid-B until actually crossing 4L. He was also aware 4L was the intended departure runway.
Troubling inconsistency between pilot interviews and performance study regarding the runway entrance lights (REL). All pilots said that, by the time RELs illuminated, aircraft was already midpoint 4L such that they couldn’t directly see the RELs and could only see the red glow off to the side of the aircraft. Performance study states (p. 17) that RELs illuminated as the aircraft crossed the 4L hold bar. Pilots should have been able to directly see RELs #3-6 and possibly #2. Only REL #1 would have definitely been out of view.
Also wondering about exterior lighting. Appears AA was operating exterior lighting consistent with company procedures, which gives the pilot the option of when to use logo lights. Do 121 pilots turn on logo lights when crossing runways? No mention of this in the interviews. Seems a logo light (if this aircraft was so equipped) would have given the DL pilots the best opportunity to see the crossing AA. Based on interviews, the DL did not see the crossing AA until after the RTO had been initiated. IOW, the RTO was initiated based on ATC instruction instead of observing the crossing AA.