Aircraft off the runway at Kennedy

[nitroboie]

Listening to the Tower and Ground feeds, a plane went off the side of 31R. 31R is now closed, so I think they're going to switch to runway 4R.

EDIT: correction it was 31L

[jamall02864]

do you have a  time so i can look it up

[nitroboie]

Around 9:25PM EST, maybe even earlier I didn't realize what happened until the tower said "we're switching runways because we've got an aircraft off the runway".

[taf158]

It was Turkish Airlines 1 that went off. I think they may have evacuated the aircraft. Saudi that was behind him went around.

Currently JFK does not have any runways up. 31L is shut down with the runoff, 4R is shutdown due to poor braking action, and I believe the rest still have snow on them. 20 Aircraft are holding, waiting for an approach into the airport, and 30 are waiting to depart.

[jamall02864]

theres curently a ground stop to jfk  for treatment untill further notice with and update at 130 est with many a/c  holding in the air

[DTAK]

I offer a description of the incident as some are having trouble with their media players and we wouldn't want anybody to be left out.

I've listened to the archive recording.  Its very interesting, but not very dramatic.

Looking at a couple of the radar tracks for incoming planes, as well as Turkish 1 (that went off the rw) shows a couple of nice holding patterns as they were waiting to come in.

Several flights were told to slow their approach speeds, including Turkish.  One responded "slow as we can go" another that they were heavy tonight, and would be faster than normal.  A plane on 31L in front of Turkish was told to speed up their taxi as much as possible/safe as a Heavy was on a 5 mile final.

Saudi 901 is in the middle of the Turkish drama.  They are #2, behind Turkish.  

Turkish over to Tower and calls in, they are cleared to land on 31L and asked to slow down.  Turkish calls in a bit later and asks if they are clear for final, ATC sounds a bit puzzled by this request as he's sure he cleared them already. Yes, cleared to land.

Saudi 901 receives clearance to land, but is cleared to land on 31 RIGHT, which is not what they are set up for, not what everybody has been doing. A minute or so later Saudi calls to confirm for 31 LEFT.  The controller sounds frustrated "Yeah, 31 Left, cleared to land"  An unknown voice chimes in with "you cleared (Saudi) to land on 31 RIGHT" and the controller responds "thank you"  No harm, no foul - Saudi was on the ball.

Not much happens until a bit of garbled call that turns out to be Turkish announcing they are off the runway.

Tower tells Saudi to "climb and maintain 2000".  

Saudi is a bit startled by the call, the pilot seems about to automatically repeat what he EXPECTS to hear: a clearance to land. Pilot catches himself, his voice rises as he comprehends what he's being told (go around) and reads back correct, and is handed off pretty quickly to departure.  Another flight (New Dawn 3, behind Saudi) is also given climb/maintain 2k and handed off, the few left coming in must still be on the arrival freq.

A new Controller (female) takes over, announces that the 31L is closed.  She asks who can switch to 4R, and gets the eager volunteers headed over to 4R "everybody - just follow everybody else in front of you, I'll take you over 4R"  - where our friends the Saudis finally land.

I quit there.  This is all in the 21:00 to 21:30 (EST) archive.  I haven't listened to the next segment.

dtak

[Fryy]

Anyone know of any exact time the first call came in of the incident, and if it was the gnd or twr freqs? or anyone have the clip?

[nfredrich]

If that wasnt enough JBU49 has a medical emergency onboard, no way of getting back to the gate anytime soon

[Chaos81]

You listening to ground too? Heard JBU49 as well. This is pretty interesting to say the least. That controller is sure earning his money tonight.

[jtrunek]

On top of all this at 0320ET the tower experienced radio problems and had to switch to a backup system.

[Fryy]

I posted a clip of the JBU49 emergency in the clips section of forums.

[Tomato]

Thanks for the summary, DTAK!

It sounds like the controller was stressed... slipping on 31 R vs 31 L.  I've caught the controller at CYYZ slip twice (on different occasions), not giving clearance to land.

I'll have to check out the archives now!  

[DTAK]

"It sounds like the controller was stressed... "

Oh, I don't know.  He mixed up the R/L, but didn't seem overly stressed out.  Clearly was a slower paced night, big gaps of silence.  There had to be a lot of off air conversation going on about the situation, so maybe a little distracted.  I wonder if the word 'right' flows out a bit easier, more automatically from the brain than 'left' in some circumstances.  Sort of an instinctual "keep right" thing starting to happen.

Glad you liked the re-cap.

dtak[/quote]