Cathay messy in SFO
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Cathay messy in SFO
Well this is worrying, you can almost feel the uncertainty/confusion in the Cathay cockpit, another reminder of how important situational awareness is and to never lose sight of it. Surely this would've been a 3 man ops with someone observing during this phase to keep overall awareness?
With all that high tech in the 350 too
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Strictly speaking that's true and I was always taught the same and wondered too. It seems they took reassurance from SFO tower telling them the traffic was not on a collision course. One does wonder how far Cathay were willing to go on this rollercoaster of an approach before they themselves thought it was time for a GA!
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In many parts of the USA, pilots will often operate with TCAS in TA mode to avoid 'nuisance' RA because of parallel runway ops, mixed GA traffic etc. and the operators think this is quite acceptable as the airspace is designated as congested. The chances are that the UAL aircraft never got an RA because the automatics were not enabled. The danger comes when these guys operate over in Europe, which the US regards as congested in all areas, so it is quite possible that one half of a conflict is only receiving TA. So long as the other party follows the RA adequate separation should result, though the experts might be able to point out circumstances where this may not be good enough.
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Sounds like a very bad day in the office for the Cathay.
Long flight, poor crew rest, poor arrival briefing?
Long flight, poor crew rest, poor arrival briefing?
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Can’t speak to the specifics of this incident, but we have SFO specific procedures that allows the Captain to select TA only for TCAS during closely spaced parallel approaches in VMC with discretion to disregard warnings if the encroaching aircraft is in sight and safe separation can be maintained.
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UAL 1515: “OK,Sir, Where is that aircraft behind us? I got an RA here to climb”
Tower: “Roger”
(Btw “Roger” is the response to “TCAS RA” which UAL did not technically say”)
To add to what someone said earlier .... I’ve flown domestically in the US and as an expat flying heavies, for both operators there was a note in the company pages recommending TA only for KSFO when conducting the 28L/28R approaches. Who knows what UAL recommends in theirs.
The bigger industry wide issue is operators having difficulties flying a visual (based on proceeding traffic, or just the runway in site). I completely get why, since when I was overseas we practiced patterns all the time in the sim so that we could say we could do it, but in the real operational environment no one would dare fly a visual from a downwind, even CAVOK daylight. It’s aviation, crap happens and if all envolved in this reflected on what they could’ve done better then that’s a good outcome. However in some companies and aviation cultures punitive actions would be the result. Which leads to people not willing to accept a visual for fear of cocking it up! Yet puff up their chests and think themselves superior aviators.
Can’t speak to the specifics of this incident, but we have SFO specific procedures that allows the Captain to select TA only for TCAS during closely spaced parallel approaches in VMC with discretion to disregard warnings if the encroaching aircraft is in sight and safe separation can be maintained.
I was a little shocked when the UAL says “he’s passing underneath us” and then doesn’t respond to a climb RA.
Without being on the flight deck it’s hard to know exactly what the dynamics looked like but it sounds pretty bad.
Glad it all turned out ok.
Without being on the flight deck it’s hard to know exactly what the dynamics looked like but it sounds pretty bad.
Glad it all turned out ok.
