Turkish A330 incident, Kathmandu
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Kathmandu vs the A330 is an accident that's been long overdue to happen.
Poor vis and 10 kt tailwind component is the norm rather than the exception - and the reported tower wind is normally nothing like what's actually encountered.
Combined with that god awful VOR approach which as I recall requires -6 degrees FPA from 15 miles right down to 5 miles, even fully configured the speed is right up at the barber's pole at that 5 mile mark, you always get a late stabilization around 500 feet if you're lucky.
In addition, aircraft are normally tankering fuel therefore they are close to max landing weight, the runway is very short and has a dirty great hump in the middle.
It's really not a place the A330 or any other heavy jet should be going to, in my opinion.
There's a heavily built up slum right off the far threshold so they are very very lucky not to have a large fatality count.
Poor vis and 10 kt tailwind component is the norm rather than the exception - and the reported tower wind is normally nothing like what's actually encountered.
Combined with that god awful VOR approach which as I recall requires -6 degrees FPA from 15 miles right down to 5 miles, even fully configured the speed is right up at the barber's pole at that 5 mile mark, you always get a late stabilization around 500 feet if you're lucky.
In addition, aircraft are normally tankering fuel therefore they are close to max landing weight, the runway is very short and has a dirty great hump in the middle.
It's really not a place the A330 or any other heavy jet should be going to, in my opinion.
There's a heavily built up slum right off the far threshold so they are very very lucky not to have a large fatality count.
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Thanks a lot for the RNP chart.
We used to fly into KTM with A310/330/340 on the VOR APP 02 which was much steeper but more aligned with the runway. The transition from 6degree to 3degree(or so) 'glideslope' at the minimum was hairy in marginal weather.
But basically straightforward with being (almost) aligned with the runway far out. I do not know if the curved RNP app which gives a lower minimum does not make the approach trickier. Does anybody know which approach they did?
We used to fly into KTM with A310/330/340 on the VOR APP 02 which was much steeper but more aligned with the runway. The transition from 6degree to 3degree(or so) 'glideslope' at the minimum was hairy in marginal weather.
But basically straightforward with being (almost) aligned with the runway far out. I do not know if the curved RNP app which gives a lower minimum does not make the approach trickier. Does anybody know which approach they did?
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This is gonna undue the value of the millions of dollars and euros spend on glossy advertising done post their Amsterdam crash. I would love to find out how much fuel was remaining when they stopped off piste here. And what minimus they were using. I've operated there and unless you are familiar its not easy to get the runway in sight with 5 times the viz reported in the metars posted above.
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tcas69:
You can hook up the automatics on this approach and it should fly with ease. The last RF leg ends at waypoint KT520 at which point you exactly aligned with the runway centerline for 3.1 miles and still on the VNAV 2.8 degree path.
One of the requirements for an RNP AR approach is that it be exactly aligned with the runway passing the final roll out point (FROP.)
I've "flown" this particular approach several times in an RNP AR desktop trainer. It is a good approach.
But basically straightforward with being (almost) aligned with the runway far out. I do not know if the curved RNP app which gives a lower minimum does not make the approach trickier. Does anybody know which approach they did?
One of the requirements for an RNP AR approach is that it be exactly aligned with the runway passing the final roll out point (FROP.)
I've "flown" this particular approach several times in an RNP AR desktop trainer. It is a good approach.
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10,000...isn't exactly short, the traditional almost always thee tailwind from 210deg isn't exactly helpful, but this fellow seems to have not made it much past taxiway 5...as it used to be called anyway...
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V0030/15 - [DOD PROCEDURAL NOTAM] RUNWAY DISPLACED. RUNWAY 02 DISPLACED 120
METERS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 19 FEB 17:45 2015 UNTIL 31 MAR 00:01 2015. CREATED:
19 FEB 17:49 2015
A0050/13 - THE NEW SIGNAGE FOR RUNWAY AND TAXIWAY AS PER ANNEX 14 ARE INSTALLED UNDER TEST AT TRIBHUVAN INTL AIRPORT.THE DETAILS ARE AS FOLLWS: 1)TAXIWAY SIGNS HAVE BEEN CHANGED FROM NUMERIC 1, 2, 3, 4 AND 5 ALPHABETIC DESIGNATION AS A, B, C, D AND E RESPECTIVELY 2)NEW SIGNAGE FOR DOMESTIC APRON, HELICOPTER APRON, LINK TAXIWAY AND PARALLEL TAXIWAY HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED AS H,J,G AND F RESPECTIVELY 3)AVBL RWY LENGTH FROM EACH TWY INTERSECTION IS ALSO DISPLAYED 4)VOR AERODROME CHECK POINT SIGN WITH VOR FREQ, BEARING AND DISTANCE FROM DME IS AVAILABLE AT TAXIWAY HOLDING POINT A AND E. 02 APR 10:30 2013 UNTIL PERM. CREATED: 08 APR 11:46
METERS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 19 FEB 17:45 2015 UNTIL 31 MAR 00:01 2015. CREATED:
19 FEB 17:49 2015
A0050/13 - THE NEW SIGNAGE FOR RUNWAY AND TAXIWAY AS PER ANNEX 14 ARE INSTALLED UNDER TEST AT TRIBHUVAN INTL AIRPORT.THE DETAILS ARE AS FOLLWS: 1)TAXIWAY SIGNS HAVE BEEN CHANGED FROM NUMERIC 1, 2, 3, 4 AND 5 ALPHABETIC DESIGNATION AS A, B, C, D AND E RESPECTIVELY 2)NEW SIGNAGE FOR DOMESTIC APRON, HELICOPTER APRON, LINK TAXIWAY AND PARALLEL TAXIWAY HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED AS H,J,G AND F RESPECTIVELY 3)AVBL RWY LENGTH FROM EACH TWY INTERSECTION IS ALSO DISPLAYED 4)VOR AERODROME CHECK POINT SIGN WITH VOR FREQ, BEARING AND DISTANCE FROM DME IS AVAILABLE AT TAXIWAY HOLDING POINT A AND E. 02 APR 10:30 2013 UNTIL PERM. CREATED: 08 APR 11:46

Anyhow, according to videos made by passengers just after getting out of the airplane one can see that the visibility must have been well below any minima
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Capt fathom
How can you possibly know what the actual visibility was at the time of landing. You can't base it on a video taken 5 minutes after the event!
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Very sad to hear about this.
Although unfortunate it's only one of many serious! incidents, not surprising accoding to past Saferty Bulletins it was always likely to happen and lucky it's not a total disaster, that's in the near future possibly, maybe, likely, very likely.
Although unfortunate it's only one of many serious! incidents, not surprising accoding to past Saferty Bulletins it was always likely to happen and lucky it's not a total disaster, that's in the near future possibly, maybe, likely, very likely.
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Why were the pax buses waiting before the pax were evacuated? It seems the aircraft crashed, emergency services and buses arrived, and then there was an evacuation - strange sequence of events?
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Just guess the firemen spread some foam to be sure that there will be no fire before evacuating the A/C.
Buses would have arrived while the firemen were in action.
Buses would have arrived while the firemen were in action.
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Still wondering how much extra fuel would be carried by flights out of KL? At least two flights that I know of returned there yesterday after nearly reaching KTM. How many hours/miles does this cater for, does anyone know?

Completed about ten holding patterns at FL210, then proceeded to KTM, made a go-around, tried for a second time and then ended up beside the runway apparently. "Landing" time at around 0200z, after two hours in the hold.