Plane nearly crashes into mountain upon takeoff
An American Airlines plane almost crashed into a mountain in Hawaii shortly after takeoff.
Flight 298 departed from Honolulu at 12.30am on Wednesday, when an air traffic controller told the crew to ascend rapidly, according to audio shared by LiveATC.
‘Number 298 turn right, expedite your climb through terrain and then turn right,’ said the controller.
The pilot followed orders and the instructions likely prevented the aircraft from going into the Koʻolau mountains.
A Federal Aviation Administration official said the flight crew ‘did not make the assigned turn while departing from Honolulu International Airport’ in Oahu, NBC News reported.
An American Airlines spokesperson stated that crew members ‘requested and received right-turn clearance and complied with controller instructions’.
‘There was no Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) alert as there were no issues with terrain clearance based on the trajectory of the aircraft,’ added the spokesperson
The plane was at least 1,500 feet over mountain peaks by the time it reached the terrain, flight tracking data indicated, according to CNN.
Daniel K Inouye International Airport, as it is formally known, is between the Koʻolau mountain range in the east and the Waiʻanae mountain range to the west.
The plane safely touched down in Los Angeles seven hours after the incident, reported HawaiiNewsNow.
The incident happened just a day after another terrifying incident aboard Scandinavian Airlines flight SK957, which departed Stockholm for Miami when it experienced extreme turbulence that forced it to make a U-turn around Greenland back to Europe.
A passenger video recorded the moment that fellow customers screamed as they were thrown up from their seats and items went flying in the air and into the aisles.
The plane landed safely at the airline’s base in Copenhagen and it was evaluated for any technical issues. The airline stated that no one was seriously injured.
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