Air France collision taxing at JFK

[CX777]

Flew 007 last year to LFPG. I am really surprised with all the CCTV cameras A380 has this could not be avoided. The SUPER did come to stop on the dime. And bet the murphys law in aviation is at play here.... GC missed it, PF missed it and the narrow alley with darkness did only to thrust this to a major event. Very lucky no one hurt.

[Ychocky]

Holy crap Comair 6293 was cool calm and collected.



Yikes.

Knocked around like a toy.

[T-Bird76]

That must have been some jolt on the CRJ...I'd wager to guess someone might be looking for a new job this morning...

[Derf]

WOW, That must have been some ride for the pilots in that Delta!

[Spunker]

The way that CRJ was spun around I would think there may be some other structural damage than just the horizontal stabilizer. Does anyone know if that was the same AF 380 that got clipped by the AF 330 in Paris?

[hiss srq]

The CRJ has extensive damage that is not entirely defineable in the images from last night. There are many many ripples in the fues skin, and major damage to the right wing as well among other issues... It wasnt as clean of a hit as the video makes it out to be.

[RomNYC]

Makes you think twice before unfastening your seatbelt before the plane gets to the gate :o

[RomNYC]

Btw, just wondering, who is to be blamed in this case?

[moose135]

Hard to say, but if you are driving and run into a parked car, what will your insurance company think?

[MarkLawrence]

Btw, just wondering, who is to be blamed in this case?

That's a darn good question - because they are going to want to blame someone - I'm thinking the poor ground controller is going to end up with it - the taxiing skipper isn't going to be looking at what his wing is clearing - the CRJ skipper won't be looking at what is coming behind him - and the ground controller has it on radar and knows it's a 380 and what the limits are....anyone agree/disagree??

[Zee71]

Holy smokes!!!! Unbelieveable.............looks like that Air France was moving at a pretty good rate to spin that puppy around like a toy.

[tsnamm]

They moved it this AM to behind Hangar 5, I assume to begin repairs....

[hiss srq]

The ground controller will have no liability nor will the ramp controller in a situation like this. The crews will be totally liable. The CRJ's tail was protruding out past the hold short line onto the active taxiway though. It will likely fall in some sort of 40/60 type liability because the CRJ was protruding into a movement area from a non movement area and the 380 didnt exercise judgement. Not to mention, he will moving a little quick. Estimates put rate of speed around 20 knots or so. On another note..... Ground radar is not that precise that distances can be determined to within inches like that.... The primary purpose is to determine absolute location. Not absulute distance.

[gonzalu]

While we are being Armchair Quarterbacks :-)

I think the fault lies entirely on the crew that either pushed the CRJ back or did not entirely pull it all the way in. The taxiways are clearly marked for that reason. The airport was modified for just that reason, to accomodate the clearances of the A380 wings. How can the AFR pilot even know the wing tip would hit the CRJ? I don;t think it is that easy to judge from the cockpit unless the intrusion was obvious and from the video, it looks like it hit the very tip of the wing.

Speed would not have played a role.. slower would still not matter much.

And for the record, while at HoBe recently, an AFR A380 refused to move further unless a port truck checked for clearance when passing an Giant Air 747 cargo going the other way. And on another occassion, an AFR 777 did the same thing when they did not see for sure if a Delta 767 would be cleared while they moved to the T1 gates.

I think the crews on the ground with the Delta were sure there was enough clearance as I did not see anyone in the BACK of it running before the hit, indicating that they saw the clearance was not met. I thought there always has to be someone behind the plane as it is moving... I can not believe that position was a final one for the Delta... it most likely was just there temporarily while doing something else?

It seems to me that Delta and jetBlue have encroached upon the main taxiways quite a lot from my last trip... they come really close to the edges of the taxiway...

[RomNYC]

That makes complete sense, Moose. But pilots are also given instruction on where to go/park, correct? Somebody here either did not follow instructions, or was given bad instructions.