THE AIRCRAFT WAS COMING IN TO LAND AT THE AIRPORT.
“Inquiries have started after an aeroplane landing at Birmingham International Airport came in too low.
The passenger airliner is reported to have descended to 600ft (182m) six miles from the airport – experts said it should have been at 1,800ft (550m).
National Air Traffic Services has confirmed the incident near Kenilworth, Warwickshire, happened on Thursday.
The aircraft and its flight data recorder are being held by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
The Airbus A310, with an unknown number of passengers on board, was being operated by Iranian airline Mahan Air.
It was spotted flying low over Honiley, near Kenilworth, as it began its descent around midday.
‘Wheels too low’
A farmer in nearby Meer End rang the airport to say a plane had flown too low over his farm.
John Conneally said he could see the plane’s wheels were down.
“It looked like it was only 200 to 300 feet up as it nearly hit the straw stack. It happened so quickly it was like a boom,” he said.
The plane then started to climb again, he said.
“The pilot on the plane must have seen us. We were looking after the cattle in the shed and the cattle went mad,” he added.
Reports say the pilot was alerted and told to climb, which he did before making a second attempt at landing.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4744614.stm
By: Matt K - 25th February 2006 at 16:13
If I remember correctly, the weather was pretty poor at the time with rain, sleet and snow with bad visability…. maybe also a cause as to what happened as well as some sort of instrument failer….?
By: seahawk - 25th February 2006 at 15:44
Perhaps they still had aviation charts in which the runway was still marked as active. Mahan sometimes has an interesting pilot quality. One is said to have been aiming for Mülheim/Essen instead of DUS.
By: Bmused55 - 24th February 2006 at 22:29
One farm I wouldn’t mind being stuck in! 😀
One farm I’m sure the pilots have seen enough of. :diablo:
By: ~gb~ - 24th February 2006 at 22:20
Maybe they were doing a PFL – Practice Forced Landing?
Only kiddin.
Imagine trying to put a widebody in a farmers field without hitting the trees at the end!
lee
By: A330-300 - 24th February 2006 at 20:04
One farm I wouldn’t mind being stuck in! 😀
By: bostin01 - 24th February 2006 at 19:58
PMSL 😀 😀
If you think that’s funny, I’ve just been reading my local paper’s interview with the farmer concerned, and you won’t believe the name of the farm!!
It’s ‘Runway farm’ , lol I nearly cried! 😀
Apparentely it’s named after an old WW2 airfield.
Cheers
Kev 🙂
Here’s a link to the story!
😀
By: OneLeft - 24th February 2006 at 14:16
Taken from the BBC website report… “It looked like it was only 200 to 300 feet up as it nearly hit the straw stack.”
That’s one hell of a straw stack!
1L.
By: Bmused55 - 24th February 2006 at 12:04
I guessing one of them cocked up the alt settings on the AP
By: Michael_Mcr - 24th February 2006 at 11:59
indeed seahawk i doubt the airplanes age had much to do with this “incident” more it seems of pilot error!
Indeed.
Assuming it was a clear day (twas Midday and the farmer could make out detail on the aircraft, so…) you would reasonably expect that a pair of professional pilots could jointly decide that this all felt and looked a bit too low.
At 6 miles out, presumably one can have some visible reference on whether the runway / horizon is too high or too low against the cockpit ?? (i stand by to be corrected by pilot types here)
Should it / would it have just seemed plain wrong to a trained pilot ?
By: Bmused55 - 24th February 2006 at 11:56
indeed seahawk i doubt the airplanes age had much to do with this “incident” more it seems of pilot error!
No one has suggested anything to that effect
By: Bmused55 - 24th February 2006 at 11:56
Still fully capable of safe operations in controlled airspace.
I don’t think anyone was saying anything to the contrary.
By: andrewm - 24th February 2006 at 10:50
indeed seahawk i doubt the airplanes age had much to do with this “incident” more it seems of pilot error!
By: seahawk - 24th February 2006 at 10:33
Still fully capable of safe operations in controlled airspace.
By: Bmused55 - 24th February 2006 at 10:29
Still a fairly sophisticated airplane though
Perhaps 20 years ago.
By: steve rowell - 24th February 2006 at 07:57
The A310 is hardly “state of the art”, Steve.
But, even so……..
Still a fairly sophisticated airplane though
By: Grey Area - 24th February 2006 at 07:07
The A310 is hardly “state of the art”, Steve.
But, even so……..
By: steve rowell - 24th February 2006 at 05:47
How can an experienced pilot in a state of the art aircraft make such a basic mistake????
By: Dantheman77 - 24th February 2006 at 02:36
propbably recieve his “notice” via the FMC.
By: Bmused55 - 24th February 2006 at 00:06
pigeon hole – lol your sooo 20th century :p
It will be by email during his flight home so he gets it when he goes home and logs on!
Stuff like a pink slip must be done via paper. No e-mail there.
He might get an initial termination notice by e-mail, but he’ll receive papers too.
By: Arabella-Cox - 23rd February 2006 at 22:50
But we still use pigeon holes at school! Even with brand new computers!
Anyway, I seen this on A.net. Someone mentioned a “dive and drive” thing. What does this mean? :confused:
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February 23, 2006 at 6:24 pm