An American Eagle Embraer 175 safely returned to Atlanta after encountering severe flight control issues during takeoff. The situation is eerily similar to an Air Astana Embraer 190 incident that occurred just under a year ago.
On November 6, 2019, AA4439 departed Atlanta (ATL) for New York LaGuardia (LGA) on-time at 9:04PM. It was operated by Republic Airways on behalf of American Airlines utilizing an E175 aircraft. During takeoff, pilots encountered a trim runaway incident and immediately declared emergency. Runaway trim occurs when the Trimmable Horizontal Stabilizer (THS) on the aircraft tail fails to stop at the desired position and continues to deflect up or down.
The aircraft climbed to 14,000 as it awaited clearance to return to ATL. But when granted, pilots reported they were close to a stall and could not lower pitch (the nose of the plane).
After fighting the aircraft to turn it and initiate descent, the problems seemed to abate and the plane landed without incident. It remains out of service as both American Airlines and federal investigators try to better understand what happened.
American Airlines told me:
On Nov. 6, American Eagle flight 4439, operated by Republic Airways, took off from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) at 9:05 p.m. ET. Flight 4439 was en route to New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA).
Due to a mechanical issue, the pilots of the Embraer E-175 returned to ATL, safely landing at 9:25 p.m. ET and taxiing to the gate. The flight had six passengers and was operated by a crew of four. Passengers were rebooked on flights that same evening to New York.
We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans, and we are sorry for the trouble this caused Wednesday evening. You will need to contact Republic Airways for any additional details, if available
Just Like Air Astana…
The incident is very similar to what happened onboard an Air Astana E190 last November (2018). That incident occurred on a ferry flight from Lisbon (LIS) to Almaty (ALA). In that case, pilots lost control to such a great extent that they were prepared to ditch the aircraft. Eventually, the regained manual control…but were minutes away from bailing.
Embraer 190, callsign KС 1388, conducted a ferry flight from the Lisbon Aviation Technical Centre when, due to technical reasons the crew decided to perform an unplanned landing. At 15.26 UTC the aircraft safety landed at the airport of Beja. There were no passengers on board.
— Air Astana (@airastana) November 11, 2018
CONCLUSION
It is too early to link the two incidents, though the common factors give great pause. Thankfully, no lives were lost in either incident. But with public opinion still largely untrusting of the 737 MAX, don’t be surprised to see skepticism surrounding Embraer regional jets as well.
image: Nathan Coats / Wikimedia Commons // H/T: Sam Chui
Boeing can’t take a trick. Also, Lion Air now reports more cracks in 737 NGs, well before the FAA mandated flight cycle check requirements, following on from similar discoveries by QANTAS last week.
As someone who has flown LGA to ATL on AA, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that there were only two customers on a Wednesday night flight. The loads vary significantly on that flight, and business travel can be extremely hight. And LGA is an AA hub!
The Air Astana incident was the result of the control cables for the ailerons being installed incorrectly during maintenance. It was not a trim runaway.
For those that might be interested here is a link to the ATC audio of the event. The initial emergency declaration starts at about 6;40 into the recording.
https://archive-server.liveatc.net/katl/KATL-Twr-9R-27L-Nov-07-2019-0200Z.mp3
Hearing those guys report that they are in a stalling condition makes my hair stand on end. Well done to them for getting it under control and down safely.
It was frightening to listen to the ATC recording. The level of stress was real in their voices. I have no idea how common trim runaway is but from what I read it requires quick and precise action before things go south in a matter of seconds. Great work by the pilots.
Reminds me of that quote pilots echo about the job, “Months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.”
The flight controls systems on the max and the Embraer jets are completely different. The smaller regional jet would have no need for a background anti stall program. It sounds to me like there was possibly loss of communication between the elevators and the EICAS and other flight control computers.
don’t fly. Go back to horses and dunkies
Isn’t this pretty much the 737 MAX MCAS issue in reverse?
No
Yes, the effect was the same, but in opposite directions. This aircraft had nose-up runaway trim. The Max had nose-down runaway trim. However the cause of the runaway trim will be different.
No. The 73M’s MCAS issue was an automated command of pitch trim as a result of faulty air data information being fed to the FMS. The E175 has no feature; rather, it will stop a pitch trim command lasting longer than three seconds, followed by an aural warning.
Just glad it ended well. The ATC recording can be found here:
https://forums.liveatc.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15644.0;attach=10547
This sounds absolutely terrifying — and also troubling that they had to wait so long for clearance to return to ATL. Unsurprisingly, the world’s best airplanes are currently being built in Canada and Europe, which have the world’s highest labor standards and the world’s most robust regulatory apparatuses.
The entire airport or any airport in the area was the flight crews to use the moment they declared an emergency. Once you declare you do what you need to do to get the airplane on the ground safely. With or without a clearance from atc.
There was no delay caused by atc in this case.
There was no delay in getting clearance to return to ATL. They climbed to 14000 feet because they couldn’t descend.
what a bunch of BS.
Embraer Jets are the safest planes, with near perfect record.
You will need to try hard to bring one down. Probably a matter of crappy maintenance.
Airplanes are complicated… No one should be surprised by this. It’s still unbelievably the safest way to travel commercially, while being the highest potential danger. Airplanes malfunction, pilots deal with it, and 95% if the time it doesn’t make major news. The Embraer is still one of the most sophisticated airplanes in the fleet. The industry is “relatively” don’t just fine. Passengers will bitch and moan about their let room, but won’t appreciate flying through a hostile atmosphere at 36,000 feet in a pressurised metal death tube with a safety record surpassed by none. I’m sure they apologise for your inconvenience but I bet they will never apologise for your safety.
Pilots do not know how to “Hand Fly”….
All they do is “Type”
Receptionist in the sky…
Sad and scares me….
Passengers really aren’t qualified to write articles like this, no matter how many miles they fly. Emergency aircraft don’t “await clearance”. Emergency aircraft tell ATC what they’re going to do and ATC moves everyone else out of the way. This was not “just like Air Astana” unless you mean they both made emergency landings. This was a runaway trim incident. Air Astana had the aileron cables incorrectly connected in reverse during maintenance on the aircraft.