Originally Posted by
Lux Flyer
No. There’s big flashing lights indicating you’re crossing from a taxiway onto to a runway but they aren’t control signals. Control is provided by ATC
And while it’s nice view from the wing has the ATC for the “exciting portion” instead of speculating what the AA aircraft did or did not hear, is it that hard to go back a little bit further in the ATC recordings to confirm the clearance AA was given? I’ll take a listen later when I get home if no one else has done it by then.
Originally Posted by
platbrownguy
That link is different from the original one in this thread, which didn't contain any of the further details.
And American acknowledged 31L, so they didn't mishear anything, as people (and this thread title) even indicates. They more likely mishandled the intersection and incorrectly identified which taxiway they were on/runway they were crossing and thought they were following their clearance to cross 31L when they crossed 4L instead. They were supposed to be taking off 4L, so it wouldn't make sense for them to have been crossing it, and fits with their following transmission that "we were cleared to cross".
Full transcript of transmissions concerning them between request to taxi and 4L incursion
https://www.whyp.it/tracks/64791/aa106?token=CWtle
AA106H: Ground AA106H Tango-Alpha for taxi
ATC: AA106H kennedy ground runway 4L taxi left bravo hold short kilo
AA106H: Hold short kilo AA106H
(4-5 mins)
ATC: AA106H cross runway 31L at Kilo
AA106: cross 31L (inaudible) 106H
(4 mins)
ATC: AA106H AA106H Hold Position
ATC: AA106H Hold Position
And here's a diagram showing what their movement would have been based on what they were cleared and acknowledged on the radio (in yellow) vs what they actually did (in red).
