Federal investigators say a mistake by the captain of an American Airlines flight caused the plane’s wing to clip the ground during takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2019. The National National Transportation Safety Board said the captain applied too much rudder power to offset a crosswind, causing the plane to veer to the left and nearly leave the runway. The pilots were able to take off, but the left wing of the Airbus A321 banked down by up to 37 degrees and struck the ground and a runway distance marker. Part of the marker was embedded in the wing, according to the report released Monday. The crew knew that it was a close call. “That scared the (expletive) outta me. I thought we were gone,” the co-pilot said once the plane was in the air, according to a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder that the NTSB released. “The (expletive) airplane just rolled on me, dude,” the captain responded. The pilots, both of whom were 58 and had extensive experience when the incident occurred, are still flying for American, according to the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline. Safety “guides every decision we make and action we take. We appreciate the National Transportation Safety Board’s thorough investigation and report,” said American spokeswoman Sarah Jantz. She said the airline was reviewing the NTSB’s report “and will closely examine if any changes are needed in training or procedures.” The pilots cut short the Los Angeles-bound flight and returned to JFK. None of the 102 passengers or eight airline crew members were injured, according to the safety board. Although there was a brisk crosswind at JFK on the night of the flight, it was below American’s limits for taking off.<br/>
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The CE of Qatar Airways has warned that disruption across the aviation industry will last for years as companies recover from the effects of the pandemic. “Covid has damaged the supply chain of the industry . . . I think that it will last for a couple of years — it is not going to go away tomorrow,” Akbar Al Baker said. Labour shortages in Europe, delays in aircraft deliveries from manufacturers and a lack of spare parts had all affected Qatar Airways, he added. Guillaume Faury, CE of the world’s largest plane maker Airbus, last week said he expected supply chain issues to continue into next year, with manufacturers facing shortages of raw materials, spare parts and electronic components. In the case of Qatar Airways, it is the staff shortages in Europe that are having the greatest impact, Al Baker said, because of disruption to flights that is having knock-on effects on the airline’s Doha hub. This month Heathrow airport imposed an unprecedented passenger cap on airlines to try to avoid more disruption, drawing a furious reaction from Qatar’s regional rival Emirates. Al Baker sits on the board of London’s Heathrow as a representative of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, a shareholder in the airport. He criticised Heathrow for not giving airlines more warning about the passenger cap, which he said was “very difficult to digest”. But he added that the problems were systemic across Europe, and not only at Heathrow.<br/>