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CAL pilots suspended from flying as probe continues into near miss at JFK

Caribbean Airlines.

New York, New York (TDN) UPDATE: Aviation authorities in Trinidad and Tobago has requested that the two pilots involved in the Caribbean Airlines (CAL) near miss with a Jet Blue aircraft at JFK be taken off flying duties as investigations continue.

Both the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority (TTCAA) and the United States Federal Aviation Administration have launched investigations into the incident.

Last Saturday, a major airline disaster was narrowly averted after a CAL plane coming from Trinidad taxied across a runway being used by a JetBlue aircraft that was in the process of taking off.

Transcripts of recordings from the tower indicate that the CAL flight 526 was advised to hold in order to allow the JetBlue aircraft to take off. However, the CAL airline appears not to have heard the controller and continued across the runway.

At the same time, the JetBlue aircraft was gathering speed in order to take off on that same runway. At that point, the air traffic controller frantically called on the JetBlue pilot to abort its takeoff. The pilot was able to successfully stop the plane about 2800 feet from the CAL flight.

Aviation experts have indicated that if the aircraft had travelled for 2 more seconds there could very well have been a collision.

Meanwhile, in new tapes released by the airport of an exchange between the tower and CAL minutes after the disaster the CAL first officer can be heard confirming to the tower that they were in fact given the go ahead to proceed to the ramp.