Originally Posted by
Cornish Jack
Lots of theories as to why this would happen and what could have prevented it BUT ... we used to show a video during recurrent CFIT training of a 47 Classic (two pilots AND A FLIGHT ENGINEER) who misheard, and accepted, a clearance on a Non Precision approach to 400feet (instead of "cleared 2400 feet") and sat, fat, dumb and happy through EIGHT GPWS "Pull up" calls with no reaction and the last recorded remark before impact was ... "Oh ****". Combined crew flying hours totalled many thousands.
Seen that one many times as well Jack..................Flying Tigers Flt 66
On February 19, 1989, a
Boeing 747-249F operating as
Flying Tiger Flight 66 was flying an
Non-directional beacon (NDB) approach to Runway 33 at
Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport,
Kuala Lumpur, after having flown half an hour from an airport in
Singapore. In descent, the flight was cleared to "Kayell" with a morse code of "KL" of which four separate points on the ground were commonly called by Malaysian ATC albeit with different frequencies. Two separate radio beacons where identically coded "KL" as well as the VOR abbreviation (Kuala Lumpur shortened to "KL") and the airport was also sometimes referred to as "KL" by local ATC (instead of the full "Kuala Lumpur"). The crew was unsure of which point they were cleared to.
ATC then radioed to the flight, "Tiger 66, descend two four zero zero [2,400 ft]. Cleared for NDB approach runway three three." The captain of Tiger 66, who heard "descend
to four zero zero" replied with, "Okay, four zero zero" (meaning 400 ft above
sea level, which was 2,000 ft too low). Subsequent warnings triggered by the onboard
Ground Proximity Warning System were cancelled as false alarms, and the aircraft hit a hillside 600 ft above sea level, killing all four people on board. The proper radio call from ATC, instead of "descend two four zero zero", should have been "descend and maintain two thousand four hundred feet". The First Officer had complained that he did not have an approach plate. The second officer was 70 years old and used a magnifying glass to see with. This accident created the GPWS escape maneuver which all airlines now use. The probable cause was the non-standard phraseology was used by Kuala Lumpur ATC, causing the crew to misinterpret the instructions.
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