EVA B777 close call departing LAX
 

“The air-traffic controller at the approach control who was handling EVA instructed the pilot to make a left turn to a 180-degree heading,” Gregor said.

“She meant to tell the pilot to make a right turn to a 180-degree heading. The pilot turned to the left. The controller quickly realized EVA was turning in the wrong direction."

Jumbo jet?s low turn on wrong course startles Los Angeles neighborhood - CBS News

ATC audio ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFdXax7Zh_g&t=21s

"The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday was investigating ..."

I feel sorry for the homeowner. Imagine how awful it must be to be tossed from your bed.

Sloppy ATC.

The controller sure doesn't help the situation when she gives EVA a left turn to 270 and then repeats 'turn southbound, southbound now' when EVA asks left or right.

This scenario out of LAX with vectors toward the hills was a favorite for GPWS training in the sim in years past.

Yeah, the tape is quite interesting in that regard. Controller seemed okay parroting the routine stuff to other flights but seemed to switch into panic mode when dealing with EVA. End of a long shift/fatigue?

Sorry folks, ATC apparently made the mistake to turn them left after departure.
...but if I'm flying easterly off the south part of parallel rwys with a left turn...plus the instructed heading gives me a 270deg change of my path...my SA would make me querie that instruction!?

Her telling to turn southbound instead of 180deg didn't help to solve the situation efficiently either!

Not very good ATC show. Not using standard ICAO phraseo did not help , and repeating same words over and over when she notices that the guys does not understand seems to be typical US . Reminds me of the " did they clear you to the gate?" famous audio in JFK some years back.

A question to the US guys here : Is an instruction like " stop climb" without specifying an altitude , and "Turn Southbound" without specifying a heading , a normal FAA Phraseology? It was used here on different aircraft not only to EVA .

Not defending the controller but the normal westerly departures have been to the east for the past few days, so the rote "turn left... blah, blah, blah" caught her out.

According to the AVHearld report very.....

BR-15 still continued to the north at about 4900-5000 feet, mountains rising there to 6653 feet. The controller instructed BR-15 to climb to 7000 feet, abeam of Pasadena,CA (USA) the crew finally began to turn right, which brought the aircraft even closer to Mount Wilson (peak and Mount Wilson Observatory at 5715 feet MSL), and to climb. The aircraft passed the peak 0.3nm south of the peak still at about 6000 feet at a heading of about 090 degrees, rolled out at heading 180, climbed to 7000 feet and continued the flight to Taipei for a safe landing without further incident.

We don't actually hear her turn instructions (did she say left or right?). EVA, on an easterly heading, replies "turn left heading 180"! Now had EVA understood the instruction as going the long way around to 180 then fair enough, but they actually headed north! I would call THAT poor airmanship! Sure, her comms was sloppy and panicky but, in my opinion, the EVA's flying skills were not up to much either!

I thought Level 6 English was supposed to fix communication problems like this? Both were at fault IMHO. The controller kept giving EVA ambiguous instructions and the crew were not clarifying the direction of turn she required to go "southbound".

I think her only injury was when she twisted her ankle running to her lawyer's office. ;)

Opening the .kml file with Google Earth (BR15 on 16 December) is a real eye-opener:

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/br15#be7fcf0

They must have had plenty of EGPWS warning, I've done the scenario with those hills in the sim more than once. The possibly apocryphal 'shutup gringo' call in the Avianca 011 crash comes to mind.

Well the Yanks better go back to school...........

(and yes i do fly into the usofa.....)

http://http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20161028-native-english-speakers-are-the-worlds-worst-communicators

found nothing in the ATC transcript that would indicate the EVA was given a left turn to the north.
SoCal Departure: „(unreadable)..180, climb and maintain 7,000.„
EVA 15: „Left heading 180 (south), climb and maintain 7,000 EVA 15 heavy.„

So no proof madam ATC was at fault in the first place.
There were plenty of time to realize for the crew that the heading they're on to was in fact NOT 180.

FR24 showed a speed of 336 KTS at 6.300 ft. Is this for real below 100 ?

US ATC are not obligated to check readbacks and challenge.

EVA obviously had no SA as exhibited that they happily turned towards terrain with no obvious issue.

The controller once it was obvious that EVA was a rogue should have been very clear in her instruction and guided EVA away from trouble. "turn Southbound" was unbelievably vague in this case.

they asked for a high-speed climb and got it approved!

Absolutely!!

LAX & SLC EGPWS Sim scenarios are dereguer in our schoolhouse. There's nothing subtle about a terrain escape maneuver! 250KIAS is the maximum below !0,000 in the Continental US. There is no avenue for a controller to approve faster. Some pretty funky winds this week, so its possible they had a 100kt tailwind at 6000... but if they were faster thats another visit to the Chiefs office...

That is not true!

@rightwayup. Got on then, 91.117. Unless approved by the Administrator, no person may operate an aircraft above a speed of 250kias below 10,000.
Clearly we're talking about the civil system and the military operates under different rules, but no US 121 operator has permission from the Administrator.
I'm all ears if you have something better, cos my jet loves a 290-320kt climb....

It IS true, in general, outside of Restricted [Military] airspace. The sole exception is when the airplane cannot be safely flown slower, e.g., a heavy airplane after takeoff that has a minimum clean speed >250. That exception is available without specific clearance EXCEPT in a few airport areas such as ORD, where the speed limit is specifically cited.

A controller cannot approve faster. A waiver must be gotten from the FAA for airshows and other specific events.

When I ask for it And "THE MIGHTY" ATC approves it?

When training for my IFR ticket thirty years ago, I was in Van Nuys, California (just on the other side of those hills) when a Cessna with student and instructor on board was vectored into a mountain when on approach to Burbank.

My grizzled old instructor, who had flown bombers in the fifties, said to me, "If a controller vectors you into a mountain, it will ruin their day. They'll have trouble driving home. But you'll be very dead. So who is really in charge of keeping you out of terrain?"

flight mode:

The highest antenna on Mt. Wilson is just under 7,000 msl.

A 777-3 fully loaded has a minimum clean speed of about 280 kts

Listening to the video, I don't agree with posters that say Eva was to blame, certainly not a "rogue".

The controller made a mistake then got flustered and started mixing up what she was saying... call signs, headings, stop climb vs expedite. You can hear the other pilots detecting that, eg AC asking for confirmation on altitude. Then later she was clearing behind events: letting a subsequent departure level at 2000, switching AC to next sector while it still appeared to have a conflict with Eva, and then not fully monitoring Eva despite it all.

Eva got some rapid fire instructions that contradicted each other: the initial left turn, then as they were passing north a reversal to a right turn then back to a left turn to 270, then just "southbound". At that point they were obviously (and reasonably) confused and asked for confirmation of heading (3:08 in the youtube video) which they didn't get, just more instructions where the controller mixes up north and south.


A couple posters mentioned that the turn left to 180 instruction is not on the live atc audio. Liveatc is often unreliable, audio dropouts due to multiple frequencies monitored. The FAA spokesman quoted in the LA times did say the controller gave that left turn.

§91.117 Aircraft speed.
(a) Unless otherwise authorized by the Administrator, no person may operate an aircraft below 10,000 feet MSL at an indicated airspeed of more than 250 knots (288 m.p.h.).
(b) Class C and D stuff
(c) Class B stuff
(d) If the minimum safe airspeed for any particular operation is greater than the maximum speed prescribed in this section, the aircraft may be operated at that minimum speed.

No authorization from ATC required, but an advisory "We'll be climbing at 280 knots" is nice. Also, the aircraft can only be operated at it's minimum safe speed. I normally round up about 10 knots. It's not a waiver to push over to barber pole.

There's also no limit in Class E airspace beyond 12 NM. But the Class B at LAX extends beyond 12 miles. Not sure what AngryRat's airline is doing. They could do 270-280 going east bound if that's what their minimum flaps up speed is.

Absolutely agree!
Perhaps she was having a bad day, perhaps it was the end of a long day.. (we have all been there, done that..)
But!
Safety should not be depending on a single person. Where was the supervisor?
There should be more then one layer of cheese.. This looks to me like a fault in the system; going to be an interesting investigation and a very interesting read HF wise...
A lot to learn here (again), pilots and controllers alike..

Hold on here. In the video at 2:30(ish) the controller clearly instructs EVA to take up a heading of 270 (she initially says 290, but corrects to 270). However, EVA merrily carries on towards the cumulugranitus....

Given the extreme rarity of an easterly departure in L.A. (I fly out of KSMO and the easterly rwy is practically never in use) would the crew not brief any possible departure route a bit more thoroughly than normal? MSA to the N is between 7.5 and 10.4 k ft.

One problem that is evident here is lack of listening to readbacks....the crew made a mistake - and didnt query it with 'turn the long way round?' - but the controller had issued her instruction and didnt pick up on the readback that it was misunderstood. Straight onto the next aircraft when confirmation of the instructions via readback would have been more suitable. I find that this is fairly prevalent in the US. If the traffic situation is too busy to allow for this then the system is pushing too much tin......

I was gobsmacked, also, with one transmission where the climb instruction at the beginning of the message was climb to 5000 but had changed to 6000 at the end of the transmission, only to be changed to 7000 seconds later! Little wonder that confusion reigned. SLOW DOWN! ATC should be a slow, careful process. Same thing in India, where medals are clearly given for the fastest ATC transmissions. I often told them to speak slowly 'because I only had 50 years experience of my native tongue and am clearly inadaquate!!'

I speak with 14000 hours and heavy, worldwide time.

Longtime lurker, new poster.

E190 FO and a frequent flyer in US airspace.

As "native non-native" English speaker, I have to say that ATC was almost at fault as the Eva pilots. Evidently, these chaps are unfamiliar with rwy 7 LAX departures (very unusual indeed) but instructions were really confusing. That, and somewhat poor navigation (I don't want to nail the pilots, since no one is clean in this job, regardless of experience).

I really wish US ATC stick MORE to clear and concise instructions, ICAO phraseology, and engrave in their minds that they are talking to NON ENGLISH speakers from every corner of the world.

Giving this confused crew a simple "fly HDG 180 to the right NOW, expedite turn" would have finished the ordeal without the mountain flyover.


But......I have listened to confused Air New Zealand and Lufthansa crews in IAH........

So it is really someting about US ATC...

Dear neilki,
There are things heavier than a C150.

Larger aircraft can almost always get approval to exceed 250 below 10,000 anywhere in the US. ATC usually has no problem approving high speed when you are a fully loaded 777.

Departed LAX many times, B744, and been cleared to 'high speed climb' when heavy, which was most times.

Is this true ? In rest of the world you are obliged .

Well , in the rest of the world you always have to follow ATC vectors, as a Controller takes over responsibility for terrain avoidance when vectoring.

A simple correction/instruction like : "Break-Break . EVA15 turn right immediately heading 180" . would have solved the problem. and we would not be here discussing it.

Incredible !

This is bad advice. The FAA never waives the speed restriction with one exception. That is if your minimum clean speed is higher then 250 knots you may fly that speed. If you are more then 12 miles offshore the speed does not apply.

I would double check that. Lots of airlines have asked all are turned down.

Why would the controller keep instructing the Eva to turn "southbound" without giving a heading or a direction? I think there are inadequacies with both the Eva crew and the controller.
Is there any evidence that Eva initiated an EGPWS escape ?

ive just listened to that audio - like many I'm sure, (and although we know there was no cfit), I still sat here quivering, waiting for what seemed like the inevitable. words escape me.

ATC Watcher I would argue you don't. My responsibilities as a Commander dictate I ensure sufficient terrain clearance. If a controller makes a mistake (like we all can all do sometimes), I cannot just sit there and suck it up.

Survival mode, she probably doesn't care as long as they turn southbound. I wonder why the crew hadn't entered survival mode just yet...

One little disconnect between pilots and controllers I can notice at times is the radar delay (lacking a more technical term for it). It's quite common for ATC to tell you to maintain heading whilst in the middle of a turn. The EVA crew is in the right turn south when they're getting a new instruction to turn left 270 deg. The autopilot is quite slow to react to such a change, and they were going quite fast. I guess the ADS-B plot is not updating accurately so it's hard to say what turn they actually did.

ATC and pilots a bit out of sync me thinks.