My heart was racing - Pilot didn't get the memo!

fholbert

fholbert

Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - Some passengers on a flight had a bit of a scare during their landing into Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport Saturday night.

Passengers on U.S. Airways Flight 3668 said the plane was coming in around 11:30 p.m. when the pilot had to abort the landing. The pilot then circled the runway for about 30 minutes because the runway lights were not on.

People on board the plane told WAVY.com the ordeal was nerve-wracking.

"I thought we were in trouble," said Marianne Harris, a passenger on Flight 3668. "My heart was racing, and I really didn't know what was going on. And all the passengers were really concerned about it, too."

10 On Your Side spoke to airport spokesperson Jessica Wharton. She said all the runway lights were checked and working fine on Saturday. Wharton said at night the runway lights turn off after 15 minutes, and pilots can turn them back on by radio. The U. S. Airways pilot was given a memo about the runaway light activation system and should have known to activate the runway lights, she said.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2012/11/pilot-aborts-landing-at-newport.html
 
Sounds like an article that would have been easily averted with a simple PA announcement.

Of course, reading (and comprehending) the NOTAMs or the A/FD might have helped, too
 
JordanD said:
I bet he didn't get the memo about his TPS reports either.
Click to expand...

Damn, you beat me to it. Still going to post this, though ...

22394841.jpg
 
rframe said:
Notam or no notam, who the hell circles staring at a blacked out airport and takes 30 minutes before thinking, "click click click click click"?
Click to expand...
Someone who was never a flight instructor and got hired right out of the mill into a 121 seat. Or as someone already posted; an RJ jock. Shiny Jet Syndrome can manifest itself in many ways........
 
rframe said:
Notam or no notam, who the hell circles staring at a blacked out airport and takes 30 minutes before thinking, "click click click click click"?
Click to expand...
Without reading the article... I have had controllers forget to activate the pilot controlled lighting just after closing time and not realize it for a few minutes while they're on their way out the door. I sat in the runup for about 15 minutes once clicking like a mad man, switching radios, and doing radio checks before the lights finally came on.

What were the weather conditions? They might not have even been able to see them until minimums. Either way, typical overblown media BS. I never got what frightens people to death about flying farther away from the ground.
 
It's not just RJ pilots...After decades of uncontrolled ops, East Hampton, NY (HTO) opened a "seasonal" air traffic control tower. That first week of ops, I heard three or four business jets ranging from a Part 91 global to XO Jet Challenger and Flight Ops Lear being astonished and gitty like a child when approach "handed them over to tower". They came back over the frequency clearly surprised and excited to hear about a control tower! Read the freaking NOTAMS.
 
I've had the lights not turn on there before. Tower closes at 11 I think and I don't know if it's the location of the PCL transmitter or something with the system, but we had to fly directly over the top of the field before we could get the lights to turn on.

Other times I've been able to power them up all the way to the west of the Elizabeth River, so who knows.
 
I'm not gonna crucify the crew here. If the field did indeed have pilot controlled lights OTS for any reason, I can easily see a situation where the crew may miss that one line in the 10+ feet of paperwork that is the dispatch release.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top