Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
In fact I remember reading that, due to terrain considerations to the west, neither landing on 12 nor departing on 30 is available to anything much bigger than an ATR.
As a pax I was on board a Buddha Air ATR72 taking off from the old airport, and had watched dozens of other aircraft movements whilst waiting to board. Most notable is that my and all the other aircraft commenced a left turn literally seconds after becoming airborne. There are high mountains straight ahead, and of you are in the left seat, within moments you are looking down the full length of the runway you’ve just departed. Most of the full length of the runway was used for take-off and the ascent was “positive”.
The pilots of the ill-fated Yeti Air ATR72 would have had no room to stabilise straight ahead, they were obliged to maintain a circling approach. Their only option might have been to widen it a little and GA parallel to 12 of the new airport. There was no way they were mistaken about the airport at the moment of the accident, though there might •possibly• have been a temporary confusion leading up to it if aircraft had been allowed to go lower and slower than it should.
My observation as a pax on ATRs is that once flap 30 is set (numerical marking visible to pax by window) the aircraft is pushed well nose down for final part of approach, on occasion arriving over runway with some floating, and very occasionally with a bump after ballooning during the float. In my experience some of the best landings have been achieved during very strong tricky winds, where pilots become really focussed. It seems the aircraft favours a good strong headwind component for the perfect touchdown.