Dangerous Approaches / Keep on Outside
Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong
The final approach accidents have increased in
the final years, according to final reports of incidents and accidents in the development
of my own research into this analysis by myself, also I want to write and post
here my personal view regarding why accidents happen in this final phase of the
flight.
Why didn’t the Flight Crew follow Standard
Operating Procedures (SOP)?
Why didn’t they fly their instruments? Why didn’t
they hear and respond to the Ground – Proximity Warning System (GPWS). Sometimes,
poor decision making in many cases caused by stress overload that resulted in
the reduction of crew focus to the point that warnings were not heard, recognized.
A Human Error approach to aviation errors analysis
such approaches black hole landings, since they were characterized as occurring
leads pilots to fly low approaches .
In another point of my personal analyses, in
the course of working with accidents similar to those in this post, I noted
that many times the Pilots appeared to lack knowledge of the design criteria for
the instrument approach procedures that they were conducting.
In both Standard for Terminal Instrument
Procedures (TERPS) and the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) equivalent
for Air Navigation Services – Aircraft Operations (PANS – OPS) there are severe and different limitations of which pilots must
be aware. Without knowledge of the limitations, pilots may inadvertently wandering
outside the protected areas and place themselves and their aircraft in danger.
I have been studied some accidents reports and
also working as an Aviation Accident Investigator, when the crew are in the
final phases approaching to the airport, occasionally the crew they get lost to
the point that they strayed from a protected area and failed to respond properly
to GPWS warnings for the last 22 seconds of the flight .
This is many times related accidents by CFIT (Controlled
Flight in to Terrain).
On occasion the findings of the accidents investigation
show that the flight crew Risk Factor long duty period, reduced alertness
likely was involved.
My best recommendation to all pilots do not
assume that all airports in the same Country o Foreign Countries use the same
design criteria, always remember that the PIC (Pilot in Command) is the only
person responsible to land the aircraft safely all the time.
ICAO provides the following information in the
DOC 8168, Aircraft Operations.
A circling approach is
a visual flight maneuver… After initial visual contact, the basic assumption is
that the runway environment (i.e, the runway threshold or approach lighting
aids or other markings identifiable with the runway) should be kept in sight
while at MDA/H (Minimum Decent Altitude / Height) for circling. If visual reference
is lost while circling to land from an instrument approach, the Missed Approach
Specified for that particular procedure must be followed.
Flying will never be risk free, but is every pilot’s
duty to mitigate the risk as well as he or she can. It is the responsibility also
the every Flight Safety Department in any organization must follow and do the
same.
It is the responsibility of the operator’s, operations
Flight Safety Departments to express this kind of Safety Information to pilots
, to avoid future accidents similar that are studied in the last accidents reports
.
Always keep in mind Fly Safely all the time. Safe
Pilots / Safe Skies. Accident Prevention is the Key!!!
DOC 8168.
http://dcaa.trafikstyrelsen.dk:8000/icaodocs/Doc%208168%20-%20Aircraft%20Operations/Volume%201%20Flight%20Procedures,%205th%20ed..pdf
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