Originally Posted by
PukinDog
After his statement that amounted to "unable" and what he able to do at 5.0, her question to him was simply how long he could maintain the speed assignment of 180/when he was going to slow to 160. He never answered that question. He could have answered he was able to do 180 "until 6", or "until 7", or even "for X more miles" (then begin to slow in order to be at the160@5 ), but he didn't.
All she needed was the point where he would begin to slow below 180 to 160 in order to calculate how much effect it would have on those in trail and how much adjusting might need to happen. Perhaps he didn't know where that point in space was and/or was too busy announcing he was flying a 747 and giving a lecture on company stabilized approach criteria to figure it out.
If he had responded with "unable" and nothing more she would have still asked him the same question about when/at what point he would slow from his speed assignment.
from what I understand from the video, he was already doing 160 when at around 8-9 miles out controller asked them to speed up.. I think the answer to the question was pretty obvious.. I'm no expert on flying a 747 but I can only imagine speeding it up to 180 and then slowing it back again to 160 within 3 miles when already established on a glide is a bit of an exercise with limited value. The whole debate about which airspace is busier is useless.. the approach controller has one job to do - get planes in line and deliver them to tower. By asking BA to cancel the approach you don't really solve the problem, you literally add more moving pieces to your puzzle.. All she needed to do was to ask following guys to slow down..