Israel – An El Al passenger flight nearly crashed in the hills near Jerusalem last November, due to a pilot error that has now led to the flight captain’s demotion.
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The incident, which is being reported here for the first time, occurred while the plane was landing at Ben-Gurion Airport. It is currently being investigated by the Ministry of Transportation’s Civil Aviation Authority.
The wide-bodied Boeing 767 jet was returning from Europe with hundreds of passengers on board. As it was circling prior to landing at Ben-Gurion, the pilot initiated a descent that brought the plane lower than the permitted altitude. At the time, he was over Modi’in, which is located in the Judean Hills.
A source in the Civil Aviation Authority therefore characterized the maneuver as dangerous, saying the pilot could have hit a hillside.
An accident was only averted at the last minute, when the cockpit crew recognized the danger and regained altitude.
“This was a breach of safety procedures that could have resulted in mass casualties,” the Civil Aviation Authority source noted. “It’s very serious and should be treated as a near miss.”
Union backs pilot
Following the incident, El Al’s management sought to institute severe sanctions against the pilot. However, the El Al pilots union, backed by the Israel Air Pilots Association, objected strenuously.
The parties therefore ultimately reached a compromise under which the pilot would only be allowed to work as a copilot, rather than as captain, for several months, until he completes additional professional training and requalifies as a captain.
In response, El Al said: “El Al has attached the greatest importance to flight safety and the safety of our passengers ever since the airline was founded. Because of the improper conduct of the captain of the Boeing 767, El Al decided to involve the relevant professional authorities. The pilot was grounded, and the authorities have agreed that for a period of four months, he is to be downgraded to copilot, after which he will have to requalify as captain. The safety of the passengers and crew were at no time endangered during the incident.”
The chairman of the Israel Air Pilots Association, Boaz Hativa, said that his organization and the El Al pilots union got involved “to ensure that the matter was handled in a businesslike, professional manner, in accordance with the law and with international aviation conventions to which Israel is a party.”
now they want attetion
ירושלים הרים סביב לה ,אבל, ה’ סביב לעמו מעתה ועד עולם, ושומרם.
I fly a lot in the USA and I know that the FAA is in almost constant contact with the aircraft & pilots cannot just do things on their own. How can something like this happen? Who in IAA authorized the dangerous maneuver? There has to be an answer.
And what was the co-pilot doing at the time – there is a reason there is a back-up at the controls – to insure AGAINST pilot error due to mistakes in settings or tiredness etc.
Not for nothing is the safety category of Ben Gurion and Israeli Airlines considered a step below.
A pilot has told me that the approach into Ben Gurion is ridiculous and may sometimes cause an accident, all aranged to avoid noise over Savion, a wealythy and powerful suburb of TA.
so the unions strike again!
this time insisting that an unqualified pilot retain his job – jeapordizing the lives of all his passengers. ahhh the common good….
with auto pilots, co-pilots, low altitude alerts and air traffic control how s does a pilot get low enough to hit a hillside?
– A pilot