Pilots Abort Takeoff Due To Wind Shear Alert
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- A spokesman for Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids says an American Airlines flight aborted takeoff due to a wind shear alert in the cockpit.
The flight carrying 145 passengers from Miami to Minneapolis already had been diverted to the airport because of bad weather in Minnesota.
Airport spokesman Bruce Schedlbauer tells The Grand Rapids Press the Boeing 747 refueled in Grand Rapids and was headed down the runway around midnight Sunday when the wind shear signal went off. He says the crew opted to abort the takeoff, and the plane didn't leave the ground.
Schedlbauer says the cockpit alert "doesn't necessarily prove there was" a wind shear condition in the vicinity.
Wind shear is a change in wind speed or direction over a short distance.
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