Safetypee, How right you are:
"... incidents that might have involved altimetry – failure to set QNH"
On a separate issue I am interested in these because I have been involved in a number of aeronautical studies under the provisions of Annex 14 (penetrations of certain obstacle limitation surfaces can be permitted following an aeronautical study). There is no gudiance material at all in ICAO documents - just a basic concept that regularity and safety are to be considered. The regularity is simple - just check the effect on all the OCA/H for the aerodrome (including the various clearance angles for VOR, ASR and RSR etc).
The safety is the big problem. Allow one penetration and it is hard to reject the next, the end result a growing forest of obstacles penetrating the Annex 14 surfaces. I have now concluded that the airspace between the PANS-OPS obstacle clearance surfaces and the Annex 14 obstacle limitation surfaces is the only thing that protects the non-normal operation. Bear in mind that PANS-OPS specifically states it is for normal operations only.
This was brought home to me when contractors started asking for the maximum elevation instead of a specific height. The State had introduced a slum clearance scheme whereby constructors could level the slums around the airport and re-house the tennants in new apartment blocks - the profit lay in an equivalent number of apartments the could sell on the private market. I have since recommended against all subsequent requests pending the State establishing some criteria to limit these constructions (this is a State respibsibility, not mine!). There is now a backlog of 120 applications!
Hence I was very interested in the type of non-normal accident you mentioned. I believe there was one at East Midlands recently when a crew forgot to reset the altimeter and flew the approach 1000ft too low. Of course these are very infrequent - but this is balanced by the probable impact on the aerodrome operations of the public enquiry that usually follows an accident of that magnitude (think Schiphol and the 747 that hit an apartment block).
I identified this problem at a recent ICAO meeting, as a result of which I have to produce some proposals - your suggestion will be most useful. Thank you.
Robert