Co-Pilot in Crash Spoke Calmly With Controllers, Tapes Show

An eerie calm marked the conversations between the co-pilot and air traffic controllers before a Colombian jetliner ran out of fuel and crashed last January in New York, according to tapes played Tuesday by federal regulators.

Avianca Flight 52 plowed into a hillside in suburban Cove Neck, Long Island, killing 73 of 158 people aboard, including the three-man cockpit crew. The disaster occurred on Jan. 25 after the plane missed its first approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport and was going around for another attempt.

On the tapes played at Federal Aviation Administration headquarters, the co-pilot sounded almost blase as he told air traffic controllers that the plane was running low on fuel.

“Climb and maintain 3,000 and, uh, we’re running out of fuel, sir,” the co-pilot told a controller after the plane missed its first approach to Kennedy in heavy fog and wind.

When asked whether the plane had enough fuel to fly 15 miles to the northeast and turn around for another approach, the co-pilot responded: “I guess so. Thank you very much.”

There was no trace of panic when, minutes later, the Avianca co-pilot radioed: “Avianca zero-five-two, we just, ah, lost two engines and we need priority, please.”

The controller then told the plane to turn left, but Avianca 52 never replied.

The tapes confirmed earlier reports that the co-pilot never used the word “emergency” in describing the plane’s situation. According to transcripts of the cockpit conversations, released in March, the pilot told the co-pilot twice in Spanish to tell traffic controllers that the plane was in an emergency.