SkyWest plane slams into jetway at LAX

A SkyWest Airlines plane slammed into a boarding jetway Tuesday morning at Los Angeles International Airport, breaking propeller blades that struck the fuselage, according preliminary information released by the National Transportation Safety Board.

There were no injuries to the crew members or 25 passengers on board the twin-engine Embraer turboprop airplane, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said.

The safety board has dispatched an investigator from its Gardena office to investigate the incident, which happened about 6:30 a.m. The plane was coming from McClellan-Palomar airport in Carlsbad, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

After landing, the aircraft was directed by a SkyWest employee into the taxi area where it struck the jetway. The propeller blades apparently hit the jetway and then hit the plane, but they did not enter into the cabin area, Knudson said.

No additional details were available.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Comments

[Rocker]

People flying from Carlsbad??? People have WAY too much money.

[timB]

would it hurt to explain to us what a "jetway" is?

[ALandofnorain]

I ride the same Skywest airplane involved in this mishap from Inyokern to LAX and back more often than I like. We call it the "crop duster". 28 people is a full airplane! I was riding back from Inyokern Airport to Ridgecrest one night after a flight, sharing a ride in the Carriage Inn's courtesy van. We talked about the hours they work and where they flew that day. Their flight crews and pilots put in some very long hours, this crew had been at it for 13 hours that day. This was about midnight. They would spend the night in a motel, eat at a coffe shop, and be flying by noon the next day for another 13 plus hour stint. It will be interesting to find out if fatigue had anything to do with this mishap. Btw, gate 82 is crowded and busy with these little Embraer 120's, and everything is in close proximity to big jets.

[Dean Bekken]

A jetway is the movable enclosed bridge used by passengers boarding the jet from the terminal.

[Hm]

It's no secret in the industry that standards have plummeted on regional carriers. They'll hire anyone out of flight school who is desperate for work, pay nothing and overwork them. They can do that bc they'll take anyone with a pilot license including people who don't have other options. Those folks take the jobs bc its the only way they can work up to jetliners (they don't know how bad the career situation in US aviation is), and bc they get suckered into thinking there's still something a bit glamorous about being a pilot. It was a great job 30 years ago, not now.
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We get what we pay for. Flying is 1/10th the price it was 40 years ago. Automation and dumbed-down skill sets have cut the costs, but once the skilled pilots retire there will accidents when the slightest thing is out of place, as in Colgan 3407. The pilots there were trained and tested only to follow checklists and use autopilot; they never had professional pilot skills which go far beyond following a manual.
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Chances are they had no clue as to the skills they lacked; they were never trained, tested or practiced at the level old-school pilots were. Now take those folks, pay them 1/3 of what a city bus driver makes (some full time pilots qualify for food stamps) and work them 12-16 hr shifts, odd hours and 4-6 hours actual sleep between some shifts and guess what you get.

[Anon]

Major airline pilots make these kind of mistakes as well. I know regional pilots who have more experience than many major airline pilots. Size of aircraft has nothing to do with having more skill. As a matter of fact regional aircraft in some cases have less automation than some of the major airline aircraft. Pilot experience varies from regional to majors. Some pilot's make regionals their careers. Please don't make the assumption that all regional pilots are less qualified, less trained, or less safe. Over-worked, under-paid, and less-respected....maybe! There are regionals that will hire low-time pilot's. I agree that changes need to be made in the industry as a whole. Years ago it wasn't uncommon for major airlines to hire pilots with very low time.

[jr]

Most of those that are attacking pilots cant be pilots themselves. Minimum hours? SkyWest hasn't hired a new pilot in over 2 years, so the average pilot should have several thousand hours flight time. And they have always hired at 1,000 hrs minimum, which is not a low time entry level job. In this case the pilot will either follow on the taxi line to the gate, and a light or a ramp agent will indicate that the pilot to procede and when to stop, and should alert the pilot of obstructions. There should be 3 ramp agents monitoring wing clearence, and THEY slipped up. Oh, and by the way, saying that the Colgan Air accident has anything to do with poor training is a joke. Recovering from an oncoming stall by pulling up? Thats like seeing a car stopped in front of you and hitting the gas pedal instead of the break. Pilots learn that from DAY 1 of training. As a pilot that baffles my mind, and I can assure you it isn't because they weren't trained right.