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CNN Live Today
Authorities Release Control Tower Audiotapes of American Airlines Flight 587
Aired February 20, 2002 - 12:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: With relatively few leads in the months following the crash of American Airlines flight 587, authorities a short time ago released the control tower audiotapes. Everyone on board that Airbus 300 was killed when that plane crashed in New York last November, and Kathleen Koch has been listening to what's been released so far this morning.
Kathleen, good afternoon.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, what we're hearing is some dramatic descriptions. We're Hearing the air traffic controllers, initially everything very calm. They are talking with flight 587, no indications of any problems from the pilot to the air traffic controllers, and nothing really that we hear that is unusual. They are giving them directions, telling them proceed down the runway, to be cautious of wake turbulence. So flight 587, we hear on this tape, does know that there is a 747, a bigger aircraft, taking off in front of it, and that there is the potential that it could cause some turbulent air that might upset this plane.
Again, they don't believe that was a factor in this crash, but it certainly was something that occurred before the pilots lost control of the plane. What we do hear, though, is some conversations between the air traffic controllers at JFK in New York, and pilots in the area. We will listen in to a female air traffic controller speaking with a pilot who spotted something.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America 587...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Negative.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mickey, are you missing any of your departures?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American 587.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are trying to figure it out now, sir. We are trying to see if we are missing an aircraft. Stand by.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it looked like it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kennedy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kennedy, La Guardia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stand by at La Guardia.
Hello, Kennedy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kennedy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kennedy (UNINTELLIGIBLE) base to the site below 1,000 is approved (ph).
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KOCH: What we are hearing now and will be playing for you soon is air traffic control tower tapes from a secondary tower that took control of flight 587 once it was in the air. Again, they have no reports, you don't hear the pilot saying he is having any difficulty. You do hear the air traffic control tower calling for 587, saying, 587, I'm not receiving your transponder, American 587, American 587, and then we hear other planes, dramatically, other pilots describing the crash site.
We saw a tremendous amount of black smoke south of Long Island, says the pilot of another American Airlines flight. We are turning south of it now, and it's on the very southern portion of Long Island. It's on the land, and it looks tremendous. It's a huge fire, tremendous amount of black smoke, says the other American Airlines pilot. Kennedy tower will probably be able to see that with no problem, and then we'll be playing for you soon what we hear from a private aircraft in the area, a small private Beechcraft, that says we're coming up on Kennedy Airport and we see that same plume of black smoke, a big column of rising brown smoke just about in the middle of a land mass southeast of the old Floyd Bennett Field.
Bill, again, people are listening carefully to these tapes. The investigators have heard the tapes, but these really don't give them the same clues that the cockpit voice recording tape gave them, where you actually heard the pilots discussing that they encountered turbulence, that they were having a problem controlling the plane, so this is just very interesting to the rest of us, who don't generally get a chance to hear the dramatic conversations that occur once a plane is going down, .
Back to you.
HEMMER: Kathleen, when that plane went down in the Queens section of New York, we heard so much about the tail fin, did we learn much more about that today from these tapes?
KOCH: No mention of that whatsoever, obviously again because we don't hear the pilots or the co-pilots talking with the tower about any difficulty they've had. Now clearly, that's what the NTSB is looking at. As you saw there, the tail fin and then also the rudder were both fished out of Jamaica Bay. NTSB last week, a week and a half ago, recommending to pilots now of every type of aircraft to be very careful not to aggressively maneuver that tail fin and rudder, the rudder I should say, back and forth, under certain conditions, for fear that it might break off, as it did in this incident --- Bill.
HEMMER: Kathleen Koch, watching that in Washington with us.
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