Truck Collides With Plane At LAX

The title indicates truck to plane. The posted link indicates plane to truck.

Even YOU don't know who to blame.
Come on, MJD!

 

Just pointing out, bud - and it does matter how you say it, a matter of semantics - who stuck who. The article title suggests one thing, the post title suggests another.

Sure, the truck was in the wrong, I'd guess that. And i trust your experience and judgment. It's just.... maybe you got it back-asswards trying to put it up?

 

Did you read this line? "The right wing of Flight 642, which had arrived from from Mexico City, struck the utility truck..."
The way it's written makes it sound like the right wing had just arrived from Mexico! I thought it was a funny and awckward way of putting it.

 

There is equal fault with the operator of the service truck (in the vehicle lane) and the pilot of the plane in the taxi lane...not an active runway BTW. IMHO, the utility truck stopped too close to the taxiway, but it was clear of the actual marked taxiway, the pilot continued on through the intersection without wing clearance striking and knocking over the service truck. The rules clearly state when a heavy is in movement any ground vehicle (excluding emergency equipment) shall come to a complete stop and wait for the heavy to clear the area. Since the 737 was taxiing, he should have been able to stop and have ground control move the utility truck clear of the intersection. By the video, there is no active runway in proximity so a plane stopping on a taxiway is common.
Something tells me, this pilot (could have been the co-pilot, article and airline don't state who was "driving")...but this person will probably be going back to "ground school", or at least have to get his depth perception checked!

 

I hear what you are saying, but what if the truck cane in front of the wing after the ####pit passed? Quite possibly the copilot saw the truck and assumed it would stop, so they didn't try to stop the plane.

 

If the truck would have been in motion it would not be laid over perpendicular with the travel lane, there would be momentum that would have caused the final resting place to not be in line with the travel lane, it would be "crooked" to the lane of travel. It was knocked over still in line.

If you look at the video, and pay attention to lane markings, you will see that the aircraft is on secondary taxi movement, not direct off a runway (no blue ground marker lights in sight). At LAX, direct runway exits do not feed to the terminals, aircraft have second and third approach taxi lanes to control and facilitate movement (at slower speeds) for terminal (gate) access. I have been a pilot for 35 years, used to fly commercial bank courier from Vegas to Ontario and LAX...I know those runways and taxiways well.