=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2002/02/04/s= tate1056EST0037.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, February 4, 2002 (AP) America West pilot blamed in April flight mishap that hurt five (02-04) 08:32 PST LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A federal report blames an America West pilot for failing to change cour= se before a New York-to-Las Vegas airliner hit severe turbulence in April, injuring five people. A flight attendant on America West Flight 7 suffered a broken ankle in t= he 16-second plunge of the Airbus A320 over the Rocky Mountains on April 19, the according to the National Transportation Safety Board final report. Another flight attendant and three other people received minor injuries, the NTSB reported. Four people were treated at a Las Vegas hospital after the aircraft landed at McCarran International Airport. One person declined hospital treatment. "This would've been like the worst roller coaster ride you've ever been = on in your life," William Waldock, a professor of Aeronautical Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a report for Monday's editions. America West spokeswoman Patty Nowak in Phoenix called clear air turbulence a problem that the airline industry has been working to address through research and technology. Nowak declined to say whether the pilot of Flight 7 acted appropriately = on warnings the NTSB said he received, and would not say whether the pilot was disciplined. She called it a personnel matter. The report, released last week, describes the jetliner plunging some 300 feet, creating a zero-gravity effect and chaos in the cabin. Passengers, who had been instructed to buckle their seat belts for turbulence, screamed as packages fell from overhead bins and flight attendants were thrown around the rear galley. The pilot got conflicting information from a dispatcher and air traffic controllers, but the NTSB determined the probable cause of the mishap was the pilot's failure to properly evaluate a hazardous weather advisory and alter course to avoid it. An America West flight dispatcher told NTSB investigators he warned the pilot two hours into the flight that other pilots were reporting severe turbulence at altitudes between 31,000 and 39,000 feet over southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. The airline told the NTSB the dispatcher recommended that the plane descend from 35,000 feet to 28,000 feet and steer around the area of forecast turbulence. Air traffic control told the pilot to expect "occasional light chop, nothing real bad" at 31,000 feet -- the altitude at which the turbulence was encountered. On the Net: National Transportation Safety Board Web site: www.ntsb.gov =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 AP