possibleconsequences
HEATHROW DIRECTOR has pointed out that EGLL no longer has an Aldis lamp and therefore cannot give a clearance to land if the aircraft has suffered a comm failure. We can't stay up there all day!
Can you show me the rule in the comm failure procedure which says that I must go-around if I lose the radio on short final on a day when I can see the runway and said runway is clear?
Perhaps it would be useful for the discussion to consider making the scenario more specific?
Lets suppose we are landing at EGLL/LHR 27R at 1455Z on a December day. We picked up info A before the descent giving: A 1350Z 27R 280/8 7km OVC009 1010. The flight plan ETA for LAM was 1435. INT N told up to expect 10-15mins delay and at 1447 we were told to complete the pattern and leave on a heading of 280 degrees. Normal vectoring applies. Listening to the R/T we note that we are following a BA callsign.
We are passed to TWR still in cloud at about 6dme and he tells us to continue approach. The weather is as forecast and just after 1000' we become visual with the runway and the aircraft ahead which is a 319. The traffic is cleared to land and in the next transmission we are told to expect a late landing clearance. (Maybe the A319 has a Vapp of 121kts and load factors are good on our Pprune Airways 757(?) so we are catching him up). The preceding traffic lands and makes for A9E. At 200' in accordance with Pprune Airways SOP the P2 says "decide", P1 says "land" and takes control. No landing clearance yet received, preceeding just vacating and noone OBVIOUSLY jumping the fence, screaming towards the runway with blue lights flashing etc.
P2 immediately calls TWR for clearance - no reply. I admit to not knowing enough about radios to know how a failure might present itself. Let us suppose that the intercom still works, but when we transmit on box 1, no side tone is heard. Looking at box 2 we see that it is still tuned to 121.5 and we are still monitoring it (though this is not required and the pilot in question normally deselects it on approach). Nothing has been heard on 121.5. P2 attempts to call both TWR frequencies on box 2 very quickly - no reply. We are now at 50' and the runway is still clear. The time is 1457Z. The TWR have no Aldis lamps.
Would considering this scenario be of any help to further the discussion?
G W-H