That sounds like a Journalist’s words (reads fpm as ft per mile, not ft per minute)
Neil wrote:
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.
They also owned the airfield (Houston Gulf) where I learned to fly, shortly after Sept.11 2001, they sold it to a housing developer (and of course my home airfield is now just a bunch of identikit McMansions)
Neil wrote:
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.
One of my staff in Egypt used to wear a “Bin Laden” t-shirt that he got when he worked in Saudi Arabia for that company. I had to convince him to not wear it anymore even though the tourists usually had a good laugh…
I’ve read reams of discussion of this crash on various sites, reams and reams, thousands of words, but the “elephant in the room” is that he was doing 150kt IAS over the threshold of the runway.
I have been to Blackbushe in the past (distant past – can drive there in the time it takes to get the plane out, etc) and if I did the same at a similar % above Vref I would go way off the far end.
And he didn’t touch down at the start. He was heading for some 2/3 to 3/4 down the runway.
That mental picture must have been so staggeringly wrong.
And the high speed of 150kt would have made a go-around easy and safe.
The answer must be somewhere else.
Peter wrote:
The answer must be somewhere else.
I’m not so sure. Sometimes people make mistakes. One of our competitiors had a similar incident some years ago at Kassel (before they got their new runway). Two professional pilots touched halfway down the runway after a rushed approach. They even forgot to set landing flaps. (The report is in German only – here )
The answer must be somewhere else.
I agree. There is no way a pilot with this experience would put himself in such a situation under normal circumstances. Probably already one of the thousand theories that must already be in circulation, but is it known whether there was someone sitting in the RHS who could have played a role? To me active interference from someone sounds most probable..
Obviously this was single pilot ops and a second one was missing in front who shöuld have said " Go around " ( at latest over the threshold ) – presuming the pilot flying suffered from a severe " get-there-itis ".
The operator was Salem Aviation of Saudi – Arabia according to aviation-safety.net. Do they operate AOC-wise with only one pilot or was it a private flight?
Luddington wrote:
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.
Interesting, and not reported on ‘the other’ forum. Despite that, I am seriously wondering about the wisdom to have AFIS ‘service’ (what a joke that term is) at an airfield like that.
That said, 2500-3000ft/min descent rate is insane, you’d struggle even in an SEP. There must be more to this than meets the eye. I wonder if the front right seat was occupied…..
I am seriously wondering about the wisdom to have AFIS ‘service’ (what a joke that term is) at an airfield like that.
UK Class G airports which don’t have IAPs don’t need to have full ATC.
Most of them don’t want ATC because the cost is very high.
However, in some cases the CAA here requires full ATC even for a Class G airport. One example is Redhill, and it is probably because it is so close to Gatwick that they cannot afford to have people doing silly things
Blackbushe does not have ATC but does have a lot of GA based there, and that whole area is busy as hell on any half reasonable day
Farnborough and Odiham have almost no traffic and Farnborough Radar keeps an eye on things there, but most aircraft in the area are not talking to anybody… also a lot of traffic, especially the community normally flying at/below about 1500ft, is non-transponding.
But in the end Class G is Class G and anybody can fly through the approach path (whether IAP or not) of any Class G airport and it is 100% legal.
I think that report you posted, what_next, describes a much smaller sort of error – a runway overrun which is quite common. This one would have come off the far end of the runway at perhaps 100kt…
I concur on the something else theory. This pilot was high houred, high experience on type, and knew this airfield. The whole approach, final scenario, is so wrong, so out of picture, that one must consider a medical issue. Everything was crying out go around, and yet he put it down way past the half way mark on the runway, still over speed. No chance, unless he thought, a better chance than him flying around the circuit again. Post mortem on him will be of interest.
