Six Lima

I'm surprised nobody's picked up on this, but to be honest it can't be taken seriously. As my flat mate said, must have been a slow news day.

"Screams as Team Plane Pulls Out of Landing"

Richard Trow

New Zealand Dominion Post 25/1/05

A group of junior softballers had the fright of their lives when their small Eagle Air aircraft aborted a landing at Wellington Airport.

The Wellington under-15 softball team - was returning home on Sunday after winning the North Island championships at Gisborne - about 6.20pm when the Beech 19-seater was forced into a steep climb to avoid an Air New Zealand Boeing 737 taxiing on the runway 500 feet (150 metres) below.

Team member Jordan Pepere, 13, said passengers did not see anything till the last minute. "Suddenly the plane pulled up and we all froze." The passengers "were screaming, hoping it wouldn't crash. We were in shock, thinking: 'What the heck is that plane doing there?'"

The pilot did a good job, he said.

Team coach Thomas Perenara said the aircraft "pulled out to the side and put its full engines on" before heading into a "very steep climb".

"The pilots seemed taken aback."

The landing gear was down and the aircraft was preparing to land when the incident took place, Mr Perenara said.

The Eagle aircraft circled above Island Bay before landing a short time later.

Eagle Air is a subsidiary of Air New Zealand.

Airways New Zealand spokesman Ken Mitchell said the procedure, called a go-around, looked "quite spectacular" but was "fairly routine" and within aviation guidelines.

"The winds were lighter than expected and it came in a little fast so the gap closed. The pilot erred on the side of caution."

Passengers were not in any danger, Mr Mitchell said.

An Air New Zealand spokesman said the small size of the plane would have made the swift ascent seem more dramatic than it was.

turbantime

Hahaha, that was a good laugh....especially the bit about the 1900 pulling out to the side to put its full engines on!!

Kaptin M

I'm sure some of these ers just write whatever comes into their head to fill space

ZK-NSJ

"i say , co-pilot, we had better put the full engines on",
must be a pretty slow news day of they are reporting go-arounds in the paper

sinala1

Not the first time its been done! Read below my Letter to the Editor of the Sunday Mail dated 15/2/04, after a QF737 go-round made front page news under the headline "Terror on the Runway"... The letter was written as if it were from Joe Public, as I could not risk being quoted as an airline source...


To Whom It May Concern,

I was mortified to read the story adorning the front page of todays Sunday Mail "Terror On The Runway". The headline indicated a severe and highly dangerous incident had happened. So it was with some interest that I read the article about two jets involved in "a terrifying near-miss" (I have a strong interest in aviation, and have done my entire life).

Upon reading the article, which refers to an aircraft on approach having to abort the landing sequence and go around for another attempt (known as a Go Around in aviation terms), I was disgusted to see the way your reporter had taken the facts and blown them so amazingly far out of proportion. It was also disturbing to read comments from passengers on the aircraft who should know better.

One passenger, Mr Philip Castle, who is a lecturer in journalism and also an "occasional pilot" commented that it was a "potentially life threatening situation". He should know that a) As a journalism lecturer, everything he said would be printed; and b) As a pilot that the "Go Around" procedure is common and implemented for any number of reasons.

Another passenger, Federal MP Bob Katter, said that "Something is terribly wrong if one plane is coming into land and another is sitting on the runway". If Mr Katter was aware of any form of aviation procedures, he would know that its quite common on busy runways to have an aircraft waiting on the runway to take off whilst another one is making its approach. Mr Katter is also incorrect in stating that he felt there was a possibility the "incident" was linked to the NAS - which refers to Light Aircraft entering Zone E airspace - nothing at all to do with 2 jet aircraft in the take off and landing phases of their flights.

This kind of journalism is pure scare mongering - taking facts and blowing them right out of proportion - if the article had been correctly and responsibly researched before going to print it would have not made the front page, if it had rated a mention at all. Your journalist, Darrell Giles, needs to remember that his role as a journalist is to accurately present facts without emotion or fanfare.

As a member of the travelling public who just happens to have a bit more aviation knowledge than your average passenger, I certainly hope that sensationalism like this is stopped, especially considering how sensitive aviation issues are at this time of our lives.

Yours,
Name Signed.

Of course, the letter was not published, and I got no reply

Hempy

Well it sells more papers than

"Plane makes Routine Missed Approach

A Beech 1900 aircraft made a missed approach at Wellington today. "

dirtylittlefokker

SINALA 1

"Another passenger, Federal MP Bob Katter, said that "Something is terribly wrong if one plane is coming into land and another is sitting on the runway". If Mr Katter was aware of any form of aviation procedures"......blah blah blah

Please rest assured that if Mr Katter's brains were dynamite he could not blow his hat off.... come to think of it if Mr Katters brains were C4 he could not do the job either!

Longhauler

I would suggest that the pilot[s] did not "err" at all.

The Messiah

To MP Bob Katter,

if clergy are interfering with young boys and people are blowing up people in the name of religion and MP's are misappropriating funds and CEO's are racing off with unsuspecting peoples money then yes "something is terribly wrong".

Mr Katter you are right, something is terribly wrong.

Taildragger67

I suggest we start sending the following link to any journo and their editor, when such a story gets a run in print:

http://radans.net/jens/planestory.html

Hopefully they'll then get the hint that they're exposing themselves as ignorant wallies.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool...

Kornholio

.... so you re-posted it here......

And you thought you'd get a sensible explanation????

Six Lima

Thanks Taildragger, I had been looking for that link when I started my post.

flyby_kiwi

Unfortunate really cos they can get it right - Looking at yesterdays news by the Herald on the C206 in Taupo it looks like a decent article.

Hempy

Bahahah wot a great link, I might become a aviation journo

Technical Glitch Scares Passengers

Tasmanian passengers told of their terrible dreadful fear aboard a Melbourne bound Compass flight which was enforced to return to Darwin yesterday due to shortage of food.

Some passengers were wounded that the 309 passengers were told few details of the catastrophe.

They said the plane 'Flew slowly with the engines screaming like Shannon Noll trying to sing' before turning around.

As a precaution, fire trucks were on standby when the Tupolev PA-31 landed.

Passenger Bruce Goatman last night was still recovering from the ordeal.

'It's a good thing I was wearing the brown underwear', the passenger said.

V1 Rotate

Reading all this it would appear that the average Kiwi not only has little better to do than write c , but they also have litle or no knowledge of aviation.
V1 Rotate

Cloud Cutter

Hahaha, great website. Especially love this one....

NoseGear

V1R, your post might be a wind up, but are you seriously suggesting that you Yanks dont write crap and have a superior knowlegde of aviation? Or anything else for that matter?

I guess we do have slow news days, better than the headlines filled with violent crime stories though isn't it?