Near-crash at JFK was likely pilot error, investigation shows
CBSN
More than three years after a CBS News report prompted a formal National Transportation Safety Board investigation into American Airlines flight 300's near-crash at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, a final report released Monday reveals how close the flight came to disaster.
More than 100 passengers, along with eight crew members, were on the Los Angeles-bound Airbus A321 on April 10, 2019 when, as CBS News and CBS New York were first to report, the flight's pilots nearly lost control of the plane as it banked left during takeoff. The plane dragged the wing along the runway before it gained altitude, and a runway light was found embedded in the wing after it returned to JFK.
At the time of the incident, the pilots told air traffic controllers, in audio obtained by CBS News, "we were ah bankin' ah ah uncontrolled bank 45 degrees."
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.