Transmile 727 in dangerous night short final at AKL
 

If the story is accurate, a wet-leased Transmile B727 flown by a Malaysian crew attempted high speed night landing at Auckland two weeks ago, and came close to emulating last years distastrous Garuda 737 overun at Den Pasar.
Story is the pilot did not initiate descent from 31,000 ft until 80 miles from AKL. The aircraft was well above profile on descent with excessive speed. Intent on getting in the pilot stuffed the nose down and at 1000 ft 4 miles out was 250 knots with Flap 2. Nothing was said from the F/O or F/E. An observer at the back of the flight deck shouted for a go-around at same time as ATC saw the danger and told the aircraft to go around. The go-around turned into a full power steep turn and tight circuit (all at night) and the max speed for flaps was exceeeded. Presumably ATC would have advised the NZ safety authority?

What a ride!!!:ok:

A lightly loaded 727 will come down like a greased manhole cover. I've started down from FL310 65 miles back before. I don't know how they screwed this up, in a 727 if you can see it you can pretty much land on it.

Not much of a confirmation, but I heard of this yesterday. Controllers said it was 300kts at Westpoint. Interesting! Maybe that's why the aircraft sat at Auckland for days doing nothing.

Much more exciting than 250 by 5000' and 210 by 3000'!!!

Buch of soft c:mad:ks........don't they learn to side slip these days.

Pull her back to idle, drop a few thousand feet on short final, engines flame out or at least give you a compressor stall, then you are committed to land, but of course you have lost height and speed now so straighetn the old girl up and flare!:eek:

The old fellas reckon these are the Ferrari of the skies! :E

J:}

It has been a VERY long time since I had the pleasure of flying a 727, but was not the Flap 2 speed 230 and flap 5, 215?

I have watched Transmile 727s depart Kuching with some interesting runway/tailwind conditions.:eek:

What speed could you dangle the dunlops if it's starts to look messy?

270 kts is gear speed.

Does anyone know if they use the callsign "express one"?

It is actually Freight Express but usually just call themselves Express the designator is AXF

Er, actually it was Yogyakarta not Den Pasar.

Whoops! Sorry...you are quite right.

try 245 flaps 2 and 230 flaps 5 Ndicho. Your better off to "Dangle Gear and use the Brakes if it :mad:uks up that bad.

In a 727-200, 31000 ft at 80 miles from AKL should not pose a problem at all. Even with a tailwind, use of the spoilers (no need for gear in this situation) should get him back on profile by about 40 - 50 miles out.

Also, some 727's have the 245/230 speed limits for flaps 2/5, while others have a 230/215 limit. Either way, being 4 miles out and still at 250 knots is a problem, because with flaps 2 you can no longer use the spoilers, so your only other option is to drop the gear. With only 4 miles to go, you are now painting yourself into a corner with regards to getting configured and on speed in time. Normally you should be fully configured and on speed by 1000 ft and 3 miles.

Yeh, alot of 727 experience mentioned above, in handling, but these jokers obviously didn't know any of that...

Makes me glad I never followed up on a job out of Subang with them, with Capts flying like this.:}

Reminds me of that old joke. Q. How many 727 pilots does it take to change a lightbulb? A 12. 1 to change the bulb and 11 to tell you how good it was at the time.

Just jealous I never flew them.

Word is tht with the recent selling of Transmile's 4-MD11's, share price 1/4 of what it once was and CEO under investigation for "cooking the books" you wont be seeing ANY Transmile 727's flying much longer...

Heard a WW1124 top of descent 35 nm at FL350 once, but it wasn't a straight in approach. No passengers either, but way cool.

Quote kiwithatflies....."In a 727-200, 31000 ft at 80 miles from AKL should not pose a problem at all. Even with a tailwind, use of the spoilers (no need for gear in this situation) should get him back on profile by about 40 - 50 miles out"

eggsackery mate!!!flew the Q-100 for several years and never had any problems getting the beeitch down.....some of you boys need to get out a bit......my only concern is.....a cracker airplane like that in "those" hands.....these boys have a history of...........well,let us just say,...maybe I wont....the soft-cocks around here my get a little upset

...but as previously stated.....WHATTA RIDE!!!!:ok: