irish ATC lands a plane by SMS text messaging to pilots cell phone(because no radio)
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irish pilot lands plane by SMS text messaging to ATC (his radio was out)
the aircraft lost all electrical power so the pilot had to get instructions from air traffic control by SMS text messaging on landing directions.
I can just imagine it now
pilot: i hv no pwr cn u hlp me?
atc: u r clrd to lnd runwy 27R
Controller praised for texting pilot down safely - The Irish Times - Thu, Aug 07, 2008
FIVE PEOPLE on a flight from Kerry to Jersey received mobile phone text instructions from a quick-thinking air traffic controller when he guided them in to a safe landing at Cork.
In what air accident investigator John Hughes described in his report yesterday as a "serious incident", the twin-engined Piper plane lost all onboard electrical power, communications and weather radar soon after take-off from Kerry airport on November 7th last.
He paid tribute to the initiative of the air traffic controller, saying the loss of all aircraft electrics during a flight "is considered very serious".
When he realised his problem the 39-year-old pilot, with four passengers on board, gained height and flew south. With a radio communications blackout on board, the pilot used his mobile phone to repeatedly try to establish contact with Kerry airport and then air traffic control at Cork.
Eventually he managed to contact Cork on his phone, telling them about his problem and his intention to approach the airport from the sea.
He then lost audio telephone contact but the air traffic controller switched to texting and told the pilot that he had a primary radar signal on the aircraft and that Cork would allow them to land there. He then used texts to guide the 30-year-old plane in.
With no power the landing gear had to be lowered manually and the plane did a fly-past of the Cork control tower to check that it was successfully locked down before the plane landed safely.
"In this incident the positive and proactive initiative of the ATC controller, who, on realising that mobile audio communication from the pilot was intermittent, quickly switched to texting his instructions instead," Mr Hughes said.
"This contributed to the safe resolution of the incident and, for such, the controller should be commended for his actions."
I can just imagine it now
pilot: i hv no pwr cn u hlp me?
atc: u r clrd to lnd runwy 27R
Controller praised for texting pilot down safely - The Irish Times - Thu, Aug 07, 2008
FIVE PEOPLE on a flight from Kerry to Jersey received mobile phone text instructions from a quick-thinking air traffic controller when he guided them in to a safe landing at Cork.
In what air accident investigator John Hughes described in his report yesterday as a "serious incident", the twin-engined Piper plane lost all onboard electrical power, communications and weather radar soon after take-off from Kerry airport on November 7th last.
He paid tribute to the initiative of the air traffic controller, saying the loss of all aircraft electrics during a flight "is considered very serious".
When he realised his problem the 39-year-old pilot, with four passengers on board, gained height and flew south. With a radio communications blackout on board, the pilot used his mobile phone to repeatedly try to establish contact with Kerry airport and then air traffic control at Cork.
Eventually he managed to contact Cork on his phone, telling them about his problem and his intention to approach the airport from the sea.
He then lost audio telephone contact but the air traffic controller switched to texting and told the pilot that he had a primary radar signal on the aircraft and that Cork would allow them to land there. He then used texts to guide the 30-year-old plane in.
With no power the landing gear had to be lowered manually and the plane did a fly-past of the Cork control tower to check that it was successfully locked down before the plane landed safely.
"In this incident the positive and proactive initiative of the ATC controller, who, on realising that mobile audio communication from the pilot was intermittent, quickly switched to texting his instructions instead," Mr Hughes said.
"This contributed to the safe resolution of the incident and, for such, the controller should be commended for his actions."
Last edited by st7860; 10th Aug 2008 at 18:47.
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maybe he should have had a backup vhf radio or something like that?
Yeah, sure, let's all get on this bandwagon and 'blame' the pilot.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda!
Good Job ATC and Good Job pilot!
Yeah, sure, let's all get on this bandwagon and 'blame' the pilot.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda!
Good Job ATC and Good Job pilot!
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Conversation as imagined by slashdot:
Hay r u ok 2 land lol?
BRB, cnt talk, crshing
haha what u crshing on she not into u lolz
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What ever it takes...
...Try to think outside the box sunshine and not sitting in your armchair pretending you know what the hell your talking about!
You make the most of what you have around you and get home SAFE!!!!!!
...Try to think outside the box sunshine and not sitting in your armchair pretending you know what the hell your talking about!You make the most of what you have around you and get home SAFE!!!!!!
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nice work....mobile ph could just have saved some lives there. Maybe it should be written into procedures as a possible response to this particular type of failure as it will get more common as years go on and aircraft get older.
What about a back up VHF handset?
Also lost comms proceedure?
By the way I like the initiative.
Also lost comms proceedure?
By the way I like the initiative.
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Interesting report, bookworm.
BTW I don't think 0.3 ohms is excessive for the relay contact resistance, assuming it was measured with a straight multimeter (most likely IMHO). It would be too high if measured professionally, using a four-terminal meter, but the tone of the report suggests this to be unlikely.
They don't appear to have cut the relay open and check the contact condition.
BTW I don't think 0.3 ohms is excessive for the relay contact resistance, assuming it was measured with a straight multimeter (most likely IMHO). It would be too high if measured professionally, using a four-terminal meter, but the tone of the report suggests this to be unlikely.
They don't appear to have cut the relay open and check the contact condition.
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.3 ohms is a 3 volt drop across the contacts at 10 amps flow but if they tested under high load such as gear retraction the heat build up probably increased the resistance significantly.
