SFO and their notorious ATC instructed 'slam dunk' visual approaches from downwind have resulted in so many incidents at our airline that it is a regular item in recurent simulator training.
Throw in the lack of visual or electronic glideslope guidance and the holes are lined up.
Well said - I couldn't agree more.
I would agree that as a professional pilot we should of course be more than capable of rising to the challenge of such an ATC imposed "slam dunk" approach - however please consider these factors that could all conspire to affect pilot performance
>a long 10 to 12 hour flight
>middle of the night body clock time
>to an airport that you may be not so familiar with (long haul pilot roster - you may only visit the destination once in two or three years)
>a slam dunk procedure that would be a challenge at the best of times (I bet even the short-haul/ domestic colleagues get it "not quite right" on occasions.
For what it's worth - I am of the opinion that slam dunk approaches for "Heavy" jets like the B777 these have no place at a major international airports.
In a "heavy" jet it's always (in my experience) a challenge to "get down & slow down" and become stabilised on this particular approach at SFO - something that sometimes ATC fail to appreciate.
Throw into the mix this runway allegedly not having any functioning ILS or even visual vertical reference guidance system - then it all adds to the possibility of "an accident waiting to happen."
Unfortunately first impressions regarding the Asiana B777 tend to point toward something awry in the handling of the aircraft (that horrible phrase "pilot error")
However - I will be watching and listening with interest to see what the FAA/NTSB have to say about these ATC procedures onto 28L & 28R at SFO.