PANAM 747 incident Sydney Runway 25 over-run on landing
 

On 18 July 1971, a Pan American Airways Boeing 747 was cleared to land on Runway 25 at Sydney (Kingsford-Smith) Airport. The T-VASIS was operational but the crew was unaware of its installation and didn't know how to use it. The aircraft crossed the 25 threshold at a wheel height of 123 feet and after a long float touched down 4000 feet beyond the 25 threshold.

There was no evidence of braking marks until the aircraft had travelled a distance of 2,181 feet beyond main wheel touch-down. The aircraft overran the runway and after turning 37 degrees to the right, became bogged in soft ground with its nose-wheel 325 feet beyond the end of the runway.

A transcript of the CVR revealed the co-pilot saying at 5 miles on final "Hell of a place for a graveyard...prime real estate" and minutes later "Could be it's that foreign kind of VASIS..shows too high, I guess."

Here is the DCA Incident Investigation Report and it is worth reading.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/24595/197101852.pdf
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An Ansett Crewing Officer who witnessed the accident made everyone laugh by saying, "The World's most experienced Airline has just had another experience".

And 46 years later runway excursions are still one of the largest contributors to haul losses globally.

Ah, what a report; the days of naming the pilots, the use of a clock-spring driven camera, and a direct transcript of the CVR!

While I quite understand the current reasoning behind anonymity and not publishing a CVR transcript, somehow I feel a little more able to engage with this report than some others I've read. Certainly a transcript could still be useful today I believe - I'd rather do my own interpretation of that in its entirety (and how it could be relevant to me for example) than have someone else do it for me.

FP.

A Passenger on the flight
 

One of my mates who was an Ansett B727 Captain was a passenger on that flight and told me what he experinced. Because it was a fairly new type and he had never been on one before he was amazed/ concerned about the landing threshold crossing height. He said when we crossed the 25 threshold at quite a height I thought " Ah well , it is a big aeroplane but when we passed the 1000 foot mark still well above the ground I thought " gee it isn't that big " and when we passed the old control tower still in the air I said " **** ! it certainly is not that big so hang on ". He said it was quite heavy braking from touchdown and quite bumpy and noisy when it left the runway.( Funny that ! )
Also was chatting to our Limo Transport driver some weeks after the incident and he had the pleasure of driving the 747 crew to their Hotel in Sydney and told me the following story that he swears is true and had the epaulettes in his glove box.
During the drive the very despondent Captain took off his epaulettes and gave them to the driver saying " you can have these as I won't be using them anymore ".
Somewhat of a stuff up big time by the crew!!!:E:E:E:E:E

Probably referencing Waverley cemetary, not the airport.

What's all the land on the approach there. Looks like swamp land?

Golf course?? Didn't a DC-3 end up in a lake one night in the golf course many years ago.

As I said earlier, 46 years on what's changed in terms of accident prevention - zero......

The crew may not have fared too well after the event but the aircraft got back in the air and ended up flying for Iran air before finishing life as N832FT for Polar Air cargo until it was scrapped in 1993.

Centaurus,
See if you can dig up the report on the inaugural Lufthansa DC-10 into Sydney, went off the end of 07 --- that was when the 07 ILS/GA threshold crossing height was 77'.
The investigation for Lufthansa was carried out by the Chief Pilot, who, probably unsurprisingly, exonerated himself completely, it was the 77' wot got the blame.
Tootle pip!!

PS: Ducky, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding the report of the EWA DC-3 into the lake at East Lakes Golf Course.

I recall reading this as part of my DC-3 ground course, and the outcome was instrumental in our specific (partial) EFATO drills.

Although at the time we used a paper copy I can find reference to the report online, and a link to it on CASA's site, but it doesn't appear to work for me...

FP.