I went into CAG today, and was grateful this poor devil from FR had made the mistake (and I read it here!), or I very well may have done the same thing:
There is NOTHING in the notams to say the main runway is back in use, it merely
no longer says that it isn't!
The old runway (now taxiway)
is not marked by crosses as you would expect, but did have cones and men and trucks on it today.
The
old yellow sidestep plate is the first one in the Jepp book.
ATC did specify the ILS Zulu approach for 32 (the old yellow one is Papa for the sidestep), and for obvious reasons were a bit more pointed than they must have been with the Ryanair! ATC in CAG is generally ****e. It is not unusual to remain on control freq rather than change to tower.
These FR guys, who most likely went into CAG frequently, didn't do this rather painful sidestep manoeuvre for laughs or to save taxi time. It is a infrastructural "Gottcha!" and CRM wise the Italians should be looking what they could have done better, instead of hanging these guys out to dry.
Today, for me, "but for the grace of god" and the FR over Easter, I may have done the same thing.
