'Plane crash' at Nepal's Kathmandu airport
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ATC Watcher; thats lefthand downwind position for 20. Later on ATC tells crew to "join right downwind to runway 20" followed almost immediately by " right downwind runway 02". Confusing or what? Lets hope we find out in the Preliminary report due within 30 days of event.
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Portmanteau :
Not if you put the things back in their context . The second instruction is a correction to the first, and it is that one which is acknowledged back by the Capt later. The Capt requested and confirmed 02 until that point remember , and the controller aim at that point was to try to bring it back in the (VFR) pattern for 02 behind the others.
You have to link the R/T exchange with the behavior and position of the aircraft as seen by the Tower controller at the time of the transmissions to understand the situation.
Things will become much clearer hopefully once we see the preliminary report .
"join right downwind to runway 20" followed almost immediately by " right downwind runway 02". Confusing or what?
You have to link the R/T exchange with the behavior and position of the aircraft as seen by the Tower controller at the time of the transmissions to understand the situation.
Things will become much clearer hopefully once we see the preliminary report .
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ATC Watcher, for what it is worth, 211 was on frequency for 12 minutes from 08hrs:21 mins:45secs to 08:33:34 of which 06 mins was on approach up to first attempt to land and 06 mins thereafter up to 211's last transmission. At approx 08:27:20 Tower says you are going to runway 20 which would fit in with your information that ATC had visual with the aircraft. Around 06 mins later the aircraft crashed.
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No, the strict legal minimum, It would have helped to give the path the aircraft actually flew ( known by now ) to eliminate the wild media speculations we saw at the beginning, but they choose not to . Pity .
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Nonetheless, Nepal will eventually provide a good report. Can't say that about all ICAO nations.
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well we can try to piece a few things together. 211 is seen in the lefthand downwind position for runway 20 at approx circuit height , at approx 6 minutes before the crash. How far could he go in 6 minutes? 9 miles say? Touches down halfway along runway 20. A Q400 pilot could tell us what the aircraft was capable of doing in that time /speed /distance scenario.
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At least the Preliminary Report referred to the communications between ATC and 211. It says that they were normal until 0832:52. (Crash occurred at 0834:10). I think the consensus on here was that they were anything but normal.
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It doesnt appear he was aligned with the runway axis when he touched down, but rather touched down as he was crossing it at a rather severe angle, hence, his continuation across the runway, into obstacles, then down the slope
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Even with the confused coms, circling approach and VOR based let down, it is very hard to understand how an experienced crew in a modern type with fully functioning avionics did not realise that they wern't lined up with either 20 or its reciprocal.
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Indeed; and the real crux of the final report that will be of interest is why they didn't land on the 10,000' that was presumably in front of them on the initial approach. That to me is the mystery, not all the ATC v pilot guff. You make an approach, are cleared to land, see the runway and then decide to do some fandango. Why? Let's wait and read.
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Is there a map of the flight path or track during the final moments of the flight, going around and circling, until the crash. I thought I saw one here, but cannot find it. No luck on flightaware or flightradar24 either.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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The map showed in here previously in a post was a guesswork made by a newspaper . Not the actual track flown by the aircraft and It seems they also never made an actual go around . The final leg was not an approach as they hit the ground nearly perpendicular across the runway.
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Rat 5, its the ATC/pilot guff that must have played a large part in this accident. For Nepal Civil Aviation to say it was normal is frankly absurd. Both ATC and pilots made several contradictory and puzzling transmissions. It ended up with a pilot who was proceeding lefthand downwind for 20 later being instructed to join righthand downwind for 02.This required a 180 turn to the right which he appears at least to have started. Then ATC offer him 02 or 20, he elects for 20 and Tower says runway 02 cleared to land. Clear as mud. Aircraft then appears from the north as if trying to land on 20. CVR might reveal what actually happened.