El Al’s troubles continue after the ‘Shabbos flight‘ and the anger of the chareidi tzibur, then to the drug smuggling case involving a senior EL Al official, and now, a report appearing in Ynet quoting the chief investigator of the Ministry of Transportation. The report reveals a safety incident that occurred about eight months ago involving a new El Al Dreamliner traveling from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport.

According to the report, the pilots erred when reporting the weight of the plane towards determining the fuel needs of the flight, citing the information fed to the computer was actually 40 tons less than actual weight. The report states this could have endangered the passengers, especially during takeoff.

As a result of the data fed to the computer by the pilot, the amount of fuel supplied to the flight was for a flight weighing 40 tons less than the actual flight weight. The reason given is they were rushed, as the plane was late in returning from the previous flight and the crew was told to expedite reading the plane for the flight to Newark in order to permit it to take off on time. The computer recorded the flight’s weight at 128.6 tons when in fact, the weight was 168.6 tons.

According to the report, he immediately noticed the mistake and even said it out loud, and claimed that he had corrected it, but in practice it appears he did not do so properly. The other pilot who was on the flight heard him declare that he had corrected the mistake but did not actually see the updated data. In fact, the final amount of fuel on which it was decided was 69 tons, which matched the wrong weight. Even after refueling and receiving the refueling page to be checked by the crew of the aircraft, the error was not discovered or corrected.

The flight took off at 1:49AM and it was headed to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. One the flight reached cruising speed, the pilots realized the error, that they had entered in incorrect data and received less fuel than they should have as a result. They immediately realized the severity of the error and the risks resulting from this reality.

In the opinion of the chief investigator, attorney Yitzchak Raz, the incident is a serious one, which could have caused a real risk of dragging the tail of the aircraft during takeoff or loss of control after the aircraft was in the air. According to him, the advanced aircraft systems were able to prevent an accident, which could have ended in disaster.

Raz claims that the delay in the arrival of the previous flight and the density of the flight schedule were significant factors in the pressure exerted on the team and caused the skipping of a stage of inspection during the pre-takeoff process. He recommends examining the flight schedules as to avoid placing such pressure on the crew in the future.

El Al said in response: “El Al is meticulous about flight safety issues, and as the test report shows, the pilot immediately understood the error and reached the necessary conclusions. The event was immediately reported by El Al to the Civil Aviation Authority and to the Chief Investigator at the Ministry of Transport.

“EL AL has conducted a comprehensive investigation into the event and has updated procedures and guidance for all of the company’s pilots. EL AL will continue to study the Chief Investigator’s report received today. We see flight safety as a supreme value and we do not compromise on it.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)