View Full Version : comms lost over Belgium
vanHorck
20th May 2011, 14:01
2 F16's from Dutch Mil were able to inform pilot of civilian flight from Barcelona to Stockholm with hand signals to resume communications after comms were lost over Belgium.
Planes broke the sound barrier over Friesland when catching up the airliner
NOS Nieuws - F-16's achtervolgen verkeersvliegtuig (http://nos.nl/artikel/242003-f16s-achtervolgen-verkeersvliegtuig.html)
Hotel Tango
20th May 2011, 15:44
Not that uncommon an occurance to be honest. Furthermore, it gives the F-16 jockeys something to do!
vanHorck
20th May 2011, 15:47
From Belgium (mid) to Friesland must be 200 nautical miles.... so max 30 minutes without comms triggers 2 F16's...
Perhaps they were discussing the new rota...
Hotel Tango
20th May 2011, 15:51
They were most probably already without comms before entering Belgium (i.e. over France). The French will report this to Maastricht Control and if no contact is made within a certain period of time the Air Defence chappies will make the decision to scramble. As I said, it's good fun for the F-16 jockeys on what would otherwise be another boring day :E
As for what the crew were doing, well I guess they must have thought it was another quiet day in some of Europes busiest airspace :E
Not uncommon.
Comms were lost already in France, well before CMB. MILs were very active today anyway so it was probably a welcome distraction.
Somebody at JKK will probably be having tea with no biscuits before too long.
To fly for an hour or more in European airspace without comms is borderline stupidity and not easily explainable.
scanhorse
21st May 2011, 07:27
What flight could it have been Barcelona - STO ?
or what time of the day ?
Pugilistic Animus
21st May 2011, 08:35
To fly for an hour or more in European airspace without comms is borderline stupidity and not easily explainable.
Why they don't got lost com procedures there ?
scanhorse
21st May 2011, 09:01
Hi
it came now over the Avherald news
Spanair A320 over Belgium on May 20th 2011, loss comm
Incident: Spanair A320 over Belgium on May 20th 2011, loss comm (http://avherald.com/h?article=43cdc5e2&opt=0)
172driver
21st May 2011, 09:37
To fly for an hour or more in European airspace without comms is borderline stupidity and not easily explainable
Well, JK have managed to land at the wrong airport in Spain (Seville instead of Malaga, IIRC)........ :ugh:
You seem very certain this could never happen to you BeT...
I am, because I am not a commercial pilot ;)
Wind Shear Ahead
22nd May 2011, 13:50
Well, JK have managed to land at the wrong airport in Spain (Seville instead of Malaga, IIRC)...
Excuse me for the off topic
Dear 172, ill informed and compulsive/avid Pprune poster...
It was not MALAGA, it was Santiago were they landed. And it was not a JKK airplane. It was a JKK flight operated by a Swedish company (maybe wrong here...) on wet lease for JKK. Theirs ops people confused SVQ (sevilla) with SCQ Santiago de Compostela and issued the crew a flight plan to SCQ.
vanHorck
22nd May 2011, 14:08
Meanwhile........
How common is it for a flight crew not to worry about a silent comm after 30 minutes or so in North western Europe?
Hotel Tango
22nd May 2011, 15:57
More common than you can imagine.
Checkboard
22nd May 2011, 15:59
The radio doesn't just stop working! You may fly out of range of the ground station - but can still hear the traffic from the air stations - and if that traffic is busy enough you still have a more or less constant chatter. Fly for long enough and you will begin to hear the next ground station on a similar frequency. Factor in English as a second language ...
NEWYEAR
22nd May 2011, 18:05
WS Ahead is right.
Anyway, the issue is that Spanairīs Crew did not follow the procedures related to communication. Bearing in mind that Spanair is involved in many financial problems, some incidents and unfortunatley an accident, pilots had to have been performing their duties on board in relation to radio communication. I mean, the Company is in the hole of the Huracan for many reasons and there are a lot of worried employees about the continuation in the aviation market.
Both pilots will have to be questioned about it.
The Company does not need incompetent pilots who increase the bad reputation and problems.
Happned again with a spanish operator over France, a week ago. But this time with something worthwhile to watch : see post in the Balcony (http://www.pprune.org/spectators-balcony-spotters-corner/453458-just-nice-watch-airbus-intercepted-mirage2000.html)
Hotel Tango
3rd Jun 2011, 14:42
Well, since SPANAIR got their name plastered all over this thread, in the interest of fairness let's name the above operator: VUELING.
pilot11
4th Jun 2011, 00:41
@ Wind shear ahead
You are absolutely right! It Was a Swedish company that mixed up the destinations, it is out of existance since about 3 years.
To be fair to the crew, ops failed to mention the new destination and issued flight plans to SCQ instead of SVQ. Since SCQ was a regular destination out of BCN nobody raised an eyebrow in the cockpit.
The language barrier between cabin and cockpit did not exactly help! At the end of the day everybody was home safe...
Quite a few other incidents this summer with the same airline should have raised some eyebrows though. I have always wondered why it did not!
So too short for the Typhoon guys to have a go at it.
Shame, it has been a while since the Luftwaffe intercepted some Yanks ;)
Wind Shear Ahead
5th Jun 2011, 18:27
@ Pilot11
No intention to have a go at the swedish crew or the swedish airline. And as you said, BCN SCQ was a regular destination. It was 172D I wanted to rebuke.
Reinhardt
8th Jun 2011, 13:09
From Hotel Tango :
"As I said, it's good fun for the F-16 jockeys on what would otherwise be another boring day http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/evil.gif"
Definitely not as boring as flying airliners from A to B, my young chap.