"Gord Beaman" ) wrote:
Mike Marron wrote:

Gee Gord, aren't you the one who slammed Ed Rasimus just two
days ago after he simply posted a harmless and amusing
little anecdote about him flying a multi-engine trash hauler?

I guess it's true what they say about beauty (etc) being in the
eye of the beholder...wot?...

I guess what you say about CRM being "the biggest addition overall
to a/c safety that's happened in a long time" is NOT always true:


***

Canadian officials are wondering how an Air Canada Airbus A319
crew on a perfectly clear August day appeared to set up to land
at a tiny municipal airport in British Columbia, instead of their real
destination.

The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) is investigating the incident
in which the A319, with its gear down and flaps partly extended, lined
up for the 75-feet-wide by 3360-feet-long Runway 23 at Vernon
Regional Airport.

The crew, which descended as low as 780 feet over the city of Vernon,
apparently realized its mistake and went looking for Kelowna
International, about 30 miles away.

The flight from Toronto carried 87 passengers and five crew.

TSB spokesman Bill Yearwood told the National Post, "The pilots
descended low enough that, for all intents and purposes, they
appeared to be lost, and that's a concern."

Yearwood is convinced the airliner would never have completed
the landing but the incident is being investigated. Yearwood said that
because of restricted airspace adjacent to the Kelowna Airport caused
by a nearby forest fire, the Air Canada flight had to perform a VFR
approach instead of the standard IFR approach.

Yearwood said there's some question whether the crew had VFR
charts on board. Yearwood wouldn't speculate on whether they might
have mistaken Vernon (pop. 35,000) for Kelowna (pop. 100,000) but a
Vernon flight instructor said it sure looked that way to him.

Tyler Chambers and a student were turning final for the same runway
when he spotted the Airbus about two miles to the north of the
airport. When the Airbus turned to line up with the Vernon Airport,
Chambers said he aborted the landing and veered out of the big jet's
path.

Air Canada hasn't commented on the details of the incident but an
industry insider told the Post the mishap is a "huge embarrassment" to
the airline and the crew.

[By The AVweb Editorial Staff, September 7, 2003]

***


-Mike (CRM my butt, try learning simple VFR navigation first!) Marron