All
← Back to Squawk list
Flying Magazine's Robert Goyer Commentary on the Dreamlifter Landing
Goyer seems to want to make excuses. This hobby, profession or whatever you want to call it cannot afford such errors and especially those with such great consequences to life and property not to mention the image of aviation. (www.flyingmag.com) More...
Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
As he stated in his article, COMPLACENCY was probably the problem. Chances are, all that info was loaded and they had probably been to Wichita before, as regular as those dreamlifters came in there, but it was VFR, Jabarra was still lit from a previous landing plane and they either couldn't see McConnell from their position or just became fixated on Jabarra. Either way, they landed and a new crew was called in to get it out. Their fate is now a personnel matter and we probably won't hear any more about it.
Well said!
Here's another piece by Goyer on how it can happen. My response would pretty much be the same given the nature and experience one would reasonably expect of such pilots.
http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/proficiency/747-lands-too-short-runway-how-did-it-happen
http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/proficiency/747-lands-too-short-runway-how-did-it-happen
2 ATP's landing on a runway half as long as the one they are going for is not an "oh it happens" situation. Also, does Goyer know there are 2 - 12,000 foot parallels at the AFB? Would it also be excusable if you landed on the left instead of the right? Just because they are 747 pilots doesn't make them better than other pilots by default, and this is an excellent display of that fact. I also liked how Goyer kept saying pilot, like there was only one with just a Garmin 496 and no checklists. 100% of the time you back the visual up. 100%. All the private pilots on the website's comment section seem to agree with him, though.
It is a whole 'nuther level when two ATP's make such a mistake, which is why it is a big deal. In a lot of cases it would be grounds for termination. That, and the seriousness of the incident, is well understood by professional and conscientious pilots. It is not that we are any better as a whole, it is just that when a company pays that amount of money they accept no bull nor mistakes. His condescending attitude is sorta scary, but moreso are the GA folks that are agreeing with him.
Robert, you hit the nail on the head. He should have had the approach loaded in both ILS resources and GPS resources. In this age with such a mass of equipment for situational awareness, there is absolutely no reason to not be aware you're set up to approach the wrong airport.
And when you're going into a new and unfamiliar location in a very rural area, that's all the more reason to have those resources set up, accordingly.
I won't call him stupid but I dang sure won't be giving him a bunch of accolades because I know for certain I would not get a break if I made the same mistake in a Skyhawk. Let's reverse that... say I went into that Air Force base when I intended to land at a nearby strip with even a very long runway? How much slack would I get outside of being surrounded by a bunch of armed Air Force MPs?
Professionals... eh, make that TWO professionals flying that bird... DO NOT NEGLECT their resources to make sure they're where they should be.