What really happened here..!!!????
Drain Bamaged
We had a similar case in my oold centre some years back when the first Very light jets arrived. . From memory : a US Citation Mustang ( if I remember correctly) came accross the Atlantic with a flight plan to Dusseldorf, , could not find any of the waypoints , used non-standard phraseology and made 2 or 3 attempts to land before the DUS TWR cleared all traffic and let him land alone. He was met by ATC guys on the tramac who find out there were 2 old buddies in their 80s flying outside of the US for the first time having bought the jet only a few weeks before . But all paperwork , licences were OK, so they got a verbal reprimand for not having properly planned their flight, But as far as I know the BFU ( German NTSB) did not get involved.
Spatial disorientation over Vegas at a CAVOK night??? There are not much places on earth with better illumination at night. Assume that he had a decent glas cockpit, so finding that 30L runway should be easy even if he would be left with only a whisky compass. Any 10h student pilot should have done better. My assumption is that the PF had serious issues with his eyesight and not the experience to compensate for that.
Very nice and calm ATC. Inbound and landing at LAS I had often the impression that they tested me how much ATC frequency changes I could write on my kneepad and not screw up...
Very nice and calm ATC. Inbound and landing at LAS I had often the impression that they tested me how much ATC frequency changes I could write on my kneepad and not screw up...
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You could be right there, listening again to the recording , it would seem the guy doing the R/T is just a parrot repeating instructions, (and he sounds Asian.hence my initial thought he was a trainee with an instructor.) Now listening to 07:15 on the initial post video, it could be that the PF has only now visual both "both runways" for the first time , and he made a succesfull landing after that. The variations of speed during the incident would also indicate he was manually flying the whole time and probably misidentifed the airport runways before.
The LC does deserve credit for staying calm. AFAIK there are no approaches for 30L or 30R, so other than turning the whole airport around, there was no way to vector him for an approach. I think if the LC would have given more positive control, assigned heading altitude and speed until short final, this would have been a much shorter video, but I don't know is the LC is authorized/able to do that.
Regarding the LC asserting more positive control, as I recall there was an extended debate about the duties/capabilities/responsibilities of Class D ATC in the May 2021 KAPA mid-air collision. Don’t recall if there was a consensus.
Yes, the LC did remain calm but her frustration was audible (justified). Regarding available approaches, the only instrument approaches are to the 12 runways. However, if you listen to the extended version, the only other aircraft in the Class D were an inbound helo and an aircraft on the ground with IFR release being held until GTT could stick the landing. Thus, sending GTT off to the NW for an instrument approach would appear to have had minimal impact on airport ops and may have expedited the departure of the waiting aircraft. If I counted correctly, our intrepid aviator finally reunited with terra firma on the 5th attempt.
Regarding the LC asserting more positive control, as I recall there was an extended debate about the duties/capabilities/responsibilities of Class D ATC in the May 2021 KAPA mid-air collision. Don’t recall if there was a consensus.
Regarding the LC asserting more positive control, as I recall there was an extended debate about the duties/capabilities/responsibilities of Class D ATC in the May 2021 KAPA mid-air collision. Don’t recall if there was a consensus.
I think the controller did very well while probably asking herself “What the hell is wrong with this fellow?”.
I recall a controller once telling a pilot: “Fly Heading of 090, exit my control zone, never come back!”
Everyone on the freq. agreed totally with the call!
I recall a controller once telling a pilot: “Fly Heading of 090, exit my control zone, never come back!”
Everyone on the freq. agreed totally with the call!
