Euhan Milhas

In early 2024, United Airlines had a series of safety incidents that ultimately caused the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to increase oversight of the airline. Among these incidents was a March 2024 runway excursion at Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH), where a Boeing 737 MAX ran off the runway.

Anyway, here’s something that I find fascinating, nearly two years after the incident. A YouTube video has just been uploaded with an analysis of the cockpit voice recorder, and as an aviation geek, I find it to be incredibly interesting.

What exactly are pilots talking about in the flight deck after something like this? Well, the first phone call was to the union (not surprisingly), and the captain was also focused on not having to get on the same bus to the terminal as passengers, among other things…

In March 2024, a United Boeing 737 MAX 8 ran off the runway in Houston, in what can only be described as a completely avoidable accident that was due to pilot error. The very experienced captain was the one flying, and to shorten taxi time, he wanted to roll to the end of the (long) runway.

However, he clearly underestimated the amount of space he’d need, as the plane didn’t slow down enough, sending it off the end of the runway (well, and to the side). He wasn’t following United’s published procedures for landing on a wet runway, so the primary cause of the accident was the captain’s actions.

YouTube channel Flying for Money has an analysis of the cockpit voice recorder, including a recreation of what was said, based on the transcript. I imagine that any pilot would be super rattled after a runway incursion, though the discussions aren’t necessarily what you’d expect.

What makes this unique is that the pilots decided not to order an evacuation via slides (which was a smart move, since those evacuations typically lead to injuries). That meant they waited onboard the plane for stairs to be driven to the plane, and as a result, the extended conversation between the pilots was caught on the cockpit voice recorder.

3min15sec into the video, while still on the plane, you can hear the captain calling his union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), to report the incident, and they advise him not to say anything else on the airplane:

Captain: “Listen, I just ran off the end of runway 27.”
ALPA rep: “You did this just now?”
Captain: “Yeah, we’re sitting here in the airplane, left main gear collapsed, and we’re deplaning right now in the buses.”
ALPA rep: “Okay, don’t say another word in the airplane.”
Captain: “Okay, all right.”

The ALPA safety chair then tells them to perform the evacuation, and then assemble the flight attendants away from potential bystander video:

Captain: “We’re sitting both in the cockpit right now.”
ALPA rep: “Okay, door closed?”
Captain: “Door’s closed, the APU is off because the flight attendants told us there was a fuel leak. We’re on the emergency power.”
ALPA rep: “Hey guys, just so you know who I am, I’m the Central Air Safety Committee Chair for ALPA. Just gotta let you know just take a deep breath. It’s okay, relax. Things like this happen. Not a good week for United. We just lost a tire going through the parking lot, so things like this happen. So go through your procedures, make sure you cover all your items, follow your evacuation checklist.”
Captain: “All right, that’s done.”
ALPA rep: “Okay, so now you just secured everything, you’re done at that point. You guys should now start to gather your, I want you to have a plan, you’re gonna travel to the chief pilot’s office, do not do anything else, you’re not talking to anybody. You’re gonna go down there, they’re probably going to make you do a drug and alcohol test, right? That’s standard.”
Captain: “Yeah.”
ALPA rep: “Okay, they’re gonna ask you questions. Your response is gonna be very clearly, ‘I’m a little rattled right now, let me gather my thoughts and we’ll file the appropriate reports in due time.’ I don’t want you guys saying anything right now. Catch your breath, right? Your career is intact, everything’s gonna be fine. This will be a flight safety investigation. You will be completely protected, and after about a month, you’ll go back and fly the line again, and this will be over and done with, okay.”
Captain: “Yeah, the only other thing is that I don’t really want to board the bus with the passengers, so I gotta figure out a way how to get to the terminal.”
ALPA rep: “Okay, what I want you to do is to call maintenance on another line and tell them to send a truck or a vehicle there to take you and the first officer to the chief pilot’s office.”

Hey, I sort of get that the captain doesn’t want to “confront” passengers, but it’s fascinating that one of the few things he proactively asks for and mentions is that he doesn’t want to get on the bus with passengers.

Another interesting thing is that 14min35sec into the video, it has the transcript of the cockpit voice recorder just shortly after the accident (before all of the above happens), where the captain repeatedly and profusely apologizes to the first officer. Over and over, he says things like “God darn it, I’m so sorry,” and “I’m in deep $hit,” and “I can’t believe I did this,” and “sorry, man, to get you into this mess.”

I think I’ve seen just about every episode of Air Crash Investigation over the years, and there you’ll often hear the transcripts of the cockpit voice recorder. However, in many ways it’s interesting to hear this kind of commentary for a less serious, non-fatal accident.

As mentioned above, what’s unique here is how long the pilots were onboard the aircraft after the incident, which meant that what they were discussing after the incident was recorded much longer than it usually would be.

I don’t actually think anything here is too shocking, but it’s still interesting to hear. Of course the captain’s first call is going to be to the union, because he wants to avoid losing his job. It’s also noteworthy how the union is very concerned about overall optics, even telling the pilots to keep the flight attendants away from any possible passenger video.

And the fact that one of the only proactive questions on the part of the captain is how he can avoid getting on a bus with passengers is interesting, and clearly a reflection of where his head was at.

Bottom line

In March 2024, a United Boeing 737 MAX ran off the runway in Houston, due to pilot error. The captain wanted to shorten the taxi time, but wasn’t following procedures for a wet runway, and underestimated the amount of runway he’d need to slow down.

The plane ended up partly in the grass with some serious damage, and everyone stayed onboard for a while, since an emergency evacuation via slides wasn’t needed. As a result, the cockpit voice recorder also captured a lot more conversation than it usually would, with everything ranging from the call to the union, to the captain’s immediate regret.

What do you make of this cockpit voice recorder transcript?

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