A crew’s failure to adequately monitor the speed of their aircraft, leading to aggressive control inputs, injured three cabin crew members, the US National Transport Safety Board has found.
The incident occurred on September 6, 2018, as American Airlines flight 279 was descending into New York/JFK to conclude a flight from Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Boeing 757-200, N173AN (c/n 32399), was nearing 12,000ft on its descent at 12.45 local time when the autopilot’s Altitude Hold mode was engaged. After 15 seconds, the recorded altimeter setting changed from 29.92 to 30.13 inches of mercury, resulting in an immediate change to the displayed altitude. The captain reported the altitude at this time was 12,100ft and changed the mode control panel (MCP)’s auto throttle system to flight level change (FLCH) to return to 12,000ft.
Acting as pilot flying, the captain then advised to the two other crew members on the flight deck – the first officer acting as pilot monitoring and an international relief officer sat in the jump seat – that the MCP was displaying an airspeed of 253-255kts, which was slightly above the desired 250kts.
The MCP speed was manually moved to 250kts, causing both throttle lever angles to decrease. Once the throttles had …
