Big problems for Air France. Flight 7 in minor runway accident, not able to depart. Looks like they may be moving all those pax onto flight 11 and 9 that have been cancelled.
AF007 Airbus A380-800
9:03 PM - April 11,2011
New York, John F Kennedy (JFK) NY - United States of America
terminal 1
10:23 AM - April 12,2011
Paris, Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - France
terminal 2E
no
AF011Boeing 777-200
cancelled
9:50 PM - April 11,2011
New York, John F Kennedy (JFK) NY - United States of America
terminal 1
11:05 AM - April 12,2011
Paris, Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - France
terminal 2E
no
AF009 Boeing 777-200
cancelled
11:20 PM - April 11,2011
New York, John F Kennedy (JFK) NY - United States of America
terminal 1
12:30 PM - April 12,2011
Paris, Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - France
terminal 2E
(AGI) New York - An Air France Airbus A380 bumped into a Comair aircraft on the tarmac of New York’s JFK airport. The accident occurred on Monday night: the French airplane carrying 475 passengers was approaching the take-off strip destined to Paris when its left wing bumped against the tail of the aircraft owned by Comair, a subsidiary airline company of Delta, which had just landed from Boston with 62 passengers.
… Crew are meant to be aware of where their wingtips are … But then again if you’re taxiing cleared for takeoff with your nose gear on the center line of the taxiway you should expect there’d be clearance.
Unless you’re driving an A380. The captain should’ve noted how close the plane was as he was approaching it.
Wow - got good video of the incident! Smacked that little CRJ pretty hard and spun it about 70 to 80 degrees! 62 pax and four crew members in need of a change of underwear!
discussion of possible causes with JFK Ground Control audio and a satellite view of the collision area which shows the relatively short distance between taxiway Alpha and the Comair ramp.
From google earth (yeah, not the most accurate but ballpark) - it’s about 180 feet from the centerline of A to the hash marks clear of the pad. That should be plenty of room for the 380 assuming the RJ was clear.
I think it’s as simple as the RJ wasn’t clear, nobody noticed, and it didn’t matter in the other 99% of aircraft that taxied by.
PS - can someone verify the Comair flight number? The ATC tapes sound like 553 (JFK to STL), the reports of landing from Boston and timing seem to tie with 293. Just curious of the plane was coming or going. I guess coming from watching the ground crew approaching the plane before the collision.
In case the A380 captain’s interested, the Paris number for Le Masteurs de Truck is 53 62 78 38 77
It’d be interesting to hear the recording from the A380 CVR. I wonder if there was any mention of concern about getting past the CRJ. Judging by the speed it was moving in the video, I’d say probably not.
And simply reading the word “expletive” on a transcript somehow doesn’t have the same effect as hearing the actual spoken words.
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