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EVA 15 narrowly misses terrain impact in Los Angeles area
Friday morning 12/16 (flight was scheduled to depart 12/15 at 11:30), EVA Air flight 15 was misdirected out of LAX, and had to make a last minute maneuver to avoid the San Gabriel mountains above Altadena/Pasadena, CA (abc7.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I think I'll wait for the instant replay from the FAA/NTSB. I'd like to see a timestamped ATC transcript and match that with the AC locations. Is an ATC routinely taken offline for this type of investigation or did the publicity have something to do with it? Speaking of publicity, how often does this occur and not hit the news?
The news report from a local Los Angeles television station does not do justice to the extent of this story. EVA 015 was given instructions many times for turns during the vectoring period. They read back the instructions correctly but did not comply. There was a heavy jet climbing behind them also northbound to the left of 015 which is why the controller did not want them to climb above 5000. the controller instructed 015 to turn westbound to pass under the Air Canada heavy at one point; again they read back the vector but did not comply. The controller had a "loose cannon" in her area of responsibility. Someone left their brains in their flight bag. I work on Mount Wilson and take it personally.
I think the did not comply came from looking at the higher terrain directly ahead and to the right. If it was clear they were probably seeing the red lights of Mt Wilson above their altitude.
As others noted we need to see the communications vs the aircraft location and altitude.
As others noted we need to see the communications vs the aircraft location and altitude.
The towers on Mount Wilson do not have obstruction lights because of the observatory. It also was in the clouds and the mountain top is dark. The location and altitude information is available on the Internet in sync with the audio. The crew just did not comply with ATC instructions; but read each back as required. Remember; the controller had other traffic in her area of responsibility, not just EVA 015. Despite the early hour, there were several departures from LAX at about the same time.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-faa-investigation-20161221-story.html
LA TIMES reports she is no longer controlling anything but that does not guarantee that she will not be back. I'm still not clear if LAX tower or SoCal gave the initial wrong turn but in any event her performance was totally unacceptable.
I think she may have been more worried about the midair snitch than running the airplane into the mountain.
LA TIMES reports she is no longer controlling anything but that does not guarantee that she will not be back. I'm still not clear if LAX tower or SoCal gave the initial wrong turn but in any event her performance was totally unacceptable.
I think she may have been more worried about the midair snitch than running the airplane into the mountain.
Don't worry- the union will protect this incompetent controller- she'll be trying to kill people with her attitude tomorrow.
The voice recordings may have been from a scanner, and it may have missed the beginning of the initial controller instructions to turn from 090 to 180 degrees. Even if the controller said left to 180 once (not on the recordings), she corrected herself several times and EVA 015 crew did nothing but fly north toward high terrain, below the tops of the mountains a few miles ahead, while in a high speed climb. Anyone who has mind-freeze, should not be in a cockpit. I assume that their terrain alert (“too low terrain and pull up”) also was sounding all this time, but it isn't heard on their radio transmissions.