Originally Posted by S70IP
The Qantas plane landed on first attempted flying below minimums with 2100 kg's in the tanks on rollout? Didn't do a go around just busted minimums first time?
Everyone is ok with this? This is normal. WTF?
from the report:
As they approached the airport from the southwest, the crew of VYK reported that there appeared to be low stratus cloud in the area, and that fog was on the ground to the north of the airport. As they continued towards way
point MIAEC, they heard the crew of an aircraft conduct a missed
approach , which they took as an indication that the conditions at Mildura were deteriorating rapidly.
Given the number of IFR aircraft (one outbound, two inbound with fuel issues, two frequencies, the rapidly deteriorating situation, are you surprised that the crew didn't verbalise their emergency? How much RT traffic was there on centre and the CTAF? Perhaps someone else made a radio call at the crucial moment?
What would have happened if they didn't bust the minima the first time, and had gone around and let the Virgin aircraft have a crack, miss out. You now have two aircraft still airborne, both having to do a true 0/0 non-precision approach. That may not have had a pleasant outcome.
There are many practical issues and alternative possibilities to consider if other course of action were taken. The main thing is
neither of us was actually there, in that situation, and in truth, there are only a very small number of people who know what actually happened. It is very easy to be an armchair expert, with the perfect knowledge of hindsight.
Everyone is ok with this? No I'm not happy they ended up in this situation, but they appear to have managed in the best way they could. There appears to be many failures in the chain, but at the end of the day, both crews did a superb of getting their machines and passengers on the ground after ending up in a very tight spot.