Avianca Transcript Indicates Communication Problem : Aviation: Recordings suggest the co-pilot failed to convey the severity of the airliner’s low fuel situation. The jet crashed on approach for landing.

A communication breakdown between flight crew members and air traffic controllers appears to have contributed to the Jan. 25 crash of Avianca Flight 52 into a hillside in Cove Neck, N.Y., according to a transcript released Tuesday.

The 68-page transcript of the final 40 minutes of crew conversation, issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, indicates that the plane’s co-pilot failed to convey the seriousness of the plane’s low fuel situation to ground controllers.

Instead of giving Flight 52 priority landing status, controllers who were in communication with the cockpit crew assigned the plane a normal approach path to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport behind other waiting aircraft.

The Boeing 707, which was en route to New York from Bogota and Medellin, Colombia, did not receive priority status on either its first approach, which the plane missed, or its second approach attempt.

While circling to make the second landing attempt, the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. Of 158 people aboard, 73 were killed, including the three crew members, and 85 were injured.

The transcript shows that at 9:24 p.m., the Avianca pilot ordered his co-pilot: “Tell them we are in emergency.”

The co-pilot told controllers: “We’re running out of fuel.”

Seconds later, the pilot said: “Advise him we are in emergency. . . . Did you tell him?”

The co-pilot replied: “Yes, sir. I already advised him.”

Moments later, the flight crew received new orders from the air traffic controllers authorizing a second approach: “Good evening, climb and maintain 3,000 (feet).”

The flight crew responded: “Climb and maintain 3,000, and, uh, we’re running out of fuel, sir.”

The controller replied: “OK, ah, fly a heading of zero-eight-zero.” A minute later, the controller continued: “I’m going to bring you about 15 miles northeast and then turn you back on for the approach. Is that fine with you and your fuel?”

The response from Flight 52: “I guess so, thank you very much.”

At 9:32 p.m., the crew told controllers: “We just lost two engines, and we need priority, please.”

Then Flight 52 ran out of fuel and crashed.

In February, the safety board recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration insist on better communication between pilots and air traffic controllers, citing the Avianca crash as an example.

The board said the Avianca crew should have used more precise phrases such as “emergency fuel” or “minimum fuel” that would have better conveyed the seriousness of its situation. Such phrases are required, it said.

The transcript released Tuesday indicates that language also may have contributed to the communication problems.

The cockpit discussions were in Spanish. The conversations with the ground controllers were in English, and the crew seemed somewhat reluctant to assert itself to ground personnel. At one point, a crew member said in an apparent reference to a controller, “the guy is angry.”

Even so, safety board spokesman Mike Benson said several aspects of the flight remain under investigation, and he cautioned that language has not yet been singled out as a cause.

“It’s not a question that the board is prepared to answer at this time,” Benson said. “All information we have is being considered.”