The preliminary report is out now.
It makes staggering reading.
A manic circuit, as one would expect at Blackbushe even during the week, causing avoidance issues with a microlight and some other stuff.
But the most amazing is that the speed at the runway threshold was 150kt, which made a landing impossible by a factor of IMHO 2x to 3×. Even a TB20 would need a 2000m-3000m runway if coming in at 150kt.
ATP with 1200hrs on type. Why? This is not a normal sort of pilot error…
Not wanting to discuss the crew’s actions or decisions, I can’t help wondering the wisdom of mixing traffic of such different performance as bizjets and microlights. Wasn’t this an accident waiting to happen? The only possible explanation is the UK’s bizarre requirement that aerodromes must be economically self-supporting (at least), forcing operators to compromise on safety.
This is not a normal sort of pilot error…
I’ve been following this on another pilot forum (won’t say which…) for a week now. Really strange. Getting TCAS alerts and “sinkrate” warnings during a visual pattern is not uncommon, so he might have expected them to some point. What must have been confusing is that while visually avoiding the microlight he got a TCAS alert from some higher traffic that he probably never saw. Maybe he just wanted to get out of that mess and rushed the approach trying to get the plane down at all cost. Maybe his bosses in the back also put some pressure on him “We are late! We are late! What’s taking so long?” – who knows? Maybe he also flew other types with thrust reversers where this kind of “landing” would just be possible and therefore looked somehow normal to him?
Next week I am going to be at Farnborough for my yearly refresher training. I’m sure that this accident will be discussed a lot there.
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
Not wanting to discuss the crew’s actions or decisions, I can’t help wondering the wisdom of mixing traffic of such different performance as bizjets and microlights.
I fly into such an airfield once every week. That’s normally not a problem unless the airfield mandates strict adherence to their traffic pattern. Otherwise, the faster you are, the wider you fly your pattern. If everybody talks and listens on the radio (I would not fly the jet into an airfield that allows non-radio traffic) the potential for conflics is very low.
So the famous passengers were just a coincidence ?
Jan – the microlight pilot is highly experienced ATP jet pilot and between them arranged the spacing. Apparently the jet pilot who was initially behind the microlight offered to extend to let the microlight go ahead but microlight pilot said he’d extend. The crew was single pilot in the P300. It just beggars belief that he opted to continue. I take a jet into the Bushe most weeks and it’s short to the extent that you need to nail the airspeed not just for safety but for general wear and tear on your brakes…
Tiagoarne wrote:
So the famous passengers were just a coincidence ?
Yes I think so. They were not really famous; the name may be, but the very large family had somewhat disowned and condemned the rogue who shared the name. The family have a very large construction business in the Middle East.
It appears to be a baffling error of judgement from an experienced pilot, unless of course there were other factors as yet unknown.
Just to drive home the message how bad that error of judgement was: 1.1 miles from the threshold (7,600ft from touchdown) he was at 1,200ft, which makes it a 16% glide slope / 9 degree approach angle. In ANY aircraft that should be a go-around, unless you are on fire or out of fuel. Even a slippery single would struggle to make the right end of the runway from that point!
Who were the passengers?
from a generally reliable poster at another forum:
The jet’s pilot, Jordanian Mazen Al-Aqeel Da’jah Salem, was killed. Bin Laden’s half-sister, Sana Mohammed Bin Laden, her mother, Raja Bashir Hashim, and his brother-in-law, Zuhair Hashim, died in the crash. The Saudi-registered Phenom 300 private jet was descending at a rate of about 2,500 ft per mile at 500 ft (152m) above the aerodrome, the Air Accidents Investigations Branch report stated.
