Another weekend, another collision, this time at my home airport, Los Angeles Angeles International (LAX), with an American Airlines A321 colliding with a bus full of passengers.
Collision At LAX: American Airlines A321 + Bus
An empty American Airlines A321 was being towed via tug at LAX on Friday evening. Just after 10:00 PM, it struck a bus transporting passengers traveling between American Airlines terminals (American uses Terminals 4 and 5 at LAX, but also has a satellite terminal for much of its regional operation).
Pictures and video have emerged and four people were hospitalized, including the bus driver, two passengers onboard, and the employee towing the plane.
🚨#UPDATE: Four people have been taken to hospital after passenger bus collides with American Airlines plane at Los Angeles international airport pic.twitter.com/RTvrVC3ROJ
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) February 11, 2023
The damage to the A321, registration code N193UW, was severe (the plane has obviously been taken out of service):
New photos show extensive damage to the American Airlines A321 that struck an airport shuttle bus on Friday at LAX. The plane was being towed from a gate to a parking area when it swiped the bus, injuring four people. pic.twitter.com/XeSvMk659p
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) February 12, 2023
The Passenger Bus System Is Flawed
The whole process of corralling passengers onto a bus and then transporting them, often with sudden stops, across active runways without seatbelts has always struck me as peculiar. True, there likely is no better alternative, but I also wonder how thoroughly these bus drivers are screened before hundreds of lives, on a single shift, are entrusted to them (not to mention some very expensive equipment…).
Planes have the right-of-way and it is up to the driver to respect that. Speaking from personal experience, the bus drivers at LAX (both for American and Delta) tend to drive like the rest of LaLa land…pretty aggressively. In contrast, I find it mildly aggravating how cautious the mobile lounge drivers are in Washington Dulles.
In any case, additional safety precautions would have been very prudent and likely avoided this unnecessary collision at LAX.
CONCLUSION
Four people were hospitalized and an American Airlines A321 is badly damaged after a collision with a bus at LAX. Is it just me, or are we seeing far more incidents lately than ever before? It is time to re-focus on safety and situational awareness: these sloppy errors will eventually cost lives.
image: Twitter
“The whole process of corralling passengers onto a bus and then transporting them, often with sudden stops, across active runways without seatbelts has always struck me as peculiar.” Welcome to Europe!!! AMS and CDG are notorious for this.
I flew American Eagle into LAX’s peasant offshore wing once a few years ago to switch to another carrier, including picking up luggage at baggage claim and then rechecking it with the continuing carrier to ensure no issues as previously experienced..a mess.
I’ve caught up on all of the Boarding Area articles about all of the many incidents as of late. No one, of course, has mentioned the mRNA shot as being a possible contributing factor to any of these incidents. I can certainly understand no one wanting to call out the elephant in the room, but some pilots are.
United pilot of 21 years to Steve Kirsch: “I was fired as a pilot from United, after 21 years of service and a clean record, for not taking an unapproved experimental drug. I’m a retired Air Force pilot in addition and it’s awful to see the toll this has taken on our service members.”
On January 25th Pilot Sierra Lund wrote this letter to the FAA Federal Air Surgeon Susan Northrup regarding her severe vaccine injury: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0b96e327-73d0-4097-83a0-35fe9921168c_1336x1285.png
Bradley Mims, Deputy Administrator of the FAA, told Steve Kirsch “no comment” when asked why the FAA was not investigating any pilot deaths/disability from the COVID vaccines. He said he should contact the press office.
FAA press office response: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe5be372c-cff6-4bde-bd62-9437e9fac309_1128x1098.png
DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s office was contacted.
Steve: “They are NOT interested in this issue. It’s not a priority for them to look into the deaths and disabilities of America’s pilots. They had no comment.”
Petition calling for the FAA to investigate pilot/flight attendant injuries/deaths following COVID vaccination
https://airtable.com/shrrPn5JXe3icwEVu
Anecdotal info on possible WN pilot disabilities: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F52a158c3-cb74-48c2-8b7e-6f2cf32280ee_946x2048.jpeg
I’ll totally call out the elephant in the room. You’re a lunatic.
Thanks! Please contact Pilot Sierra Lund and tell her she is crazy, too: https://www.sbaviationgroup.com/bio
Furthermore, I really do not care what you or anyone else thinks of me at this point.. People resort to personal attacks when they cannot refute or discuss the [very important] topic at hand. Safety is paramount in aviation–Sierra’s point to the FAA about allowing the untested mRNA cocktail into pilots is well taken (by me).
Instead we had self proclaimed experts like Ben Schlappig not allowing “COVID misinformation” when actually the information was the truth. One does wonder how he sleeps at night. Per his comment policy:
“Spreading conspiracy theories, spouting propaganda, or diminishing science in an attempt to conform the situation to your worldview doesn’t add value to our community, and certainly doesn’t get any of us closer to being able to travel again in the ways we love.”
Interesting..as now ‘traveling in the ways we love’ are now way riskier and Ben and others have shut down any debate. One would think that they were not trying to play Russian Roulette when stepping on a plane, but perhaps not.
I’ve given up flying myself until these massive safety issues are addressed (never mind reported by Ben and others on Boarding Area). I won’t hold my breath.
LOL.
Wow–another helpful and insightful comment from the wonderful readership. Thanks to you, too!
Let the record reflect that the very few members of the public who tried to fight for aviation safety, among other things, were called lunatics with others responding “lol”. Truly scary for the future of this country and for the future of aviation when we have serious issues and the response is “lol”. But that’s fine, we tried and y’all didn’t and now you want to make fun of the messenger..make it make sense.
I was just watching a youtube video of someone being bussed to the eagle’s nest and you can see no one stops at the stop signs at LAX. Are they optional???
I have been escorted in my work truck on the tarmac lanes at LAX as part of my work. I was taught that airplanes have priority over other vehicles and that you have to come to a full stop out of the path so that airplanes may pass. There are plenty of stop signs. You stop and then go when traffic permits it. Sometimes you have to wait a while. If I become separated from my escort vehicle, I have to follow the rules on my own until we are again in contact. I was quite nervous when I drove on the tarmac even though I was being escorted because my vehicle did not give clear views in all directions. I was there during he day and all vehicles stopped at the signs.
I hope more information comes out about this. The airplane damage in the photos does not seem consistent with a slow speed collision.
Check out AA1473 last Thursday the 9th from TPA to PHX. There was an aborted landing just before touchdown with a rapid pull-up. Was told this was due to a cargo plane on the runway but it hasn’t hit the news.
Matt, can you use to sources to get the story here? Thanks!
I was transiting between Delta’s terminal and the international terminal in this manner, at night, with a trainee bus driver at the helm, watching the ghostly silhouettes of airliners loom in the darkness beyond the smudgy bus windows, and thought it was only a matter of time before one of the buses gets bisected by the landing gear of a taxiing 737. Glad no one was killed.
I don’t fly much, but I found LAX’s system of busing people airside between physically separated terminals to be incredibly stupid.