chain of events

I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and ran into a friend who
recounted a recent experience he had. He was inbound to LAX on the Civet
arrival to rwy 25R at night. His FO coupled the autopilot to the ILS about
30 miles out. Approach control pointed out traffic from the northeast that
was to join the ILS for the north side's parallel runway. Everything was
routine. They were told to switch over to the tower's frequency. Then they
saw a bright flash from an explosion on the north side of the terminal. Both
of them thought there had been a crash.

From here everything happened rapidly. They were staring so hard out the
front that they didn't notice the parallel traffic went through the
northside localizer and was heading right at them. Then the TCAS went crazy
telling them to pull up. Then the autopilot let out with it's loud series of
chirps. Then the captain yelled at the FO to pull up because there was no
response to the TCAS. The FO yelled back that he thought the captain had the
controls. The captain looked out his window to see an A-340 less than 200'
below them and it was racked up at big bank angle trying to get back on
final for the north runway. Then a frantic radio call came from ATC asking
if they were still there.

The subsequent investigation revealed an interesting chain of events. The
flash came from an exploding electrical transformer. The localizer,
glideslope, and ATC radios failed momentarily until back-up power came
online. When the localizer signal failed, the A-340's autopilot didn't have
anything to intercept and stayed on the intercept angle, which is why it
went through the final approach into the south runway's final approach. When
the localizer failed, my friend's autopilot didn't kick-off, but changed
from approach mode into heading and pitch mode which mimics the ILS in
smooth air. The FO heard the autopilot chirps along with the TCAS warnings
and figured the captain had assumed control from him. The captain heard the
same noises but figured the FO had kicked off the AP to perform the TCAS
instructions.

It was close. Stay safe.

D.

It was close. Stay safe.

Holy crap! What an amazing story.

We had a Cherokee Six declare an emergency here last week. He was on
an Angel Flight from Texas, and started icing up badly. Then his
engine lost power (carb ice?) and he was down to 200' AGL before he
was able to restart it.

He got down okay, badly shaken. The guy didn't even have a coat --
one of the line guys lent him his...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck writes:

We had a Cherokee Six declare an emergency here last week. He was on
an Angel Flight from Texas, and started icing up badly. Then his
engine lost power (carb ice?) and he was down to 200' AGL before he
was able to restart it.

He got down okay, badly shaken. The guy didn't even have a coat --
one of the line guys lent him his...

What about his passenger(s)?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Wow! Shows how every little thing can have big consequences.

Jose
--
Humans are pack animals. Above all things, they have a deep need to
follow something, be it a leader, a creed, or a mob. Whosoever fully
understands this holds the world in his hands.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Mar 8, 7:28 pm, "Capt.Doug" wrote:
I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and ran into a friend who
recounted a recent experience he had. He was inbound to LAX on the Civet
arrival to rwy 25R at night. His FO coupled the autopilot to the ILS about
30 miles out. Approach control pointed out traffic from the northeast that
was to join the ILS for the north side's parallel runway. Everything was
routine. They were told to switch over to the tower's frequency. Then they
saw a bright flash from an explosion on the north side of the terminal. Both
of them thought there had been a crash.

From here everything happened rapidly. They were staring so hard out the
front that they didn't notice the parallel traffic went through the
northside localizer and was heading right at them. Then the TCAS went crazy
telling them to pull up. Then the autopilot let out with it's loud series of
chirps. Then the captain yelled at the FO to pull up because there was no
response to the TCAS. The FO yelled back that he thought the captain had the
controls. The captain looked out his window to see an A-340 less than 200'
below them and it was racked up at big bank angle trying to get back on
final for the north runway. Then a frantic radio call came from ATC asking
if they were still there.

The subsequent investigation revealed an interesting chain of events. The
flash came from an exploding electrical transformer. The localizer,
glideslope, and ATC radios failed momentarily until back-up power came
online. When the localizer signal failed, the A-340's autopilot didn't have
anything to intercept and stayed on the intercept angle, which is why it
went through the final approach into the south runway's final approach. When
the localizer failed, my friend's autopilot didn't kick-off, but changed
from approach mode into heading and pitch mode which mimics the ILS in
smooth air. The FO heard the autopilot chirps along with the TCAS warnings
and figured the captain had assumed control from him. The captain heard the
same noises but figured the FO had kicked off the AP to perform the TCAS
instructions.

It was close. Stay safe.

D.

Doug, This story doesnt make a bit of sense! I got a good laugh out of
it though.Did someone actually tell you this or did you just make it
up?
Cheers, KW

"F. Reid" wrote:

Doug, This story doesnt make a bit of sense! I got a good laugh out of
it though.Did someone actually tell you this or did you just make it
up?
Cheers, KW

What a stupid response to a great story. I have read your postings before. Classic troll. Go away.

On Mar 8, 10:18 pm, "KiloMike" wrote:
"F. Reid" wrote:
Doug, This story doesnt make a bit of sense! I got a good laugh out of
it though.Did someone actually tell you this or did you just make it
up?
Cheers, KW

What a stupid response to a great story. I have read your postings before. Classic troll. Go away.

Stupid response?Did I not post that I got a good laugh?Pretty much all
of this story defies common sense to the point I thought it was a
joke.But I guess you would rather perpetuate internet folklore.
Classic troll my ass.Why dont you go away jerk off.

On Mar 8, 10:18 pm, "KiloMike" wrote:


What a stupid response to a great story. I have read your postings before. Classic troll. Go away.

KM, dont be such a gulible idiot.It is obvious most of this story is
either embelished or made up.Let me spell it out for you;First, tell
me the last time you got 25R at LAX 30 miles out on the Civet.Could
happen I guess, but I have never seen it.Further more, are you gonna
see a transformer go at 30 miles.Do you really think the airport would
go dead (Like the scene in the movie Airplane when the guy in the
tower pulls the plug).If you were the crew of the A340 on a vector to
final would you just fly though final if you had a localizer flag? An
A340 doesnt even need ground based equipment to fly an approach.And
what about their TCAS? I can go on with this but I hope you have the
picture.
Kilo Mike, you should work on recocnizing internet folklore instead
calling people names.
KM

On Mar 8, 11:38 pm, "F. Reid" wrote:
On Mar 8, 10:18 pm, "KiloMike" wrote:



What a stupid response to a great story. I have read your postings before. Classic troll. Go away.
..It is obvious most of this story is
either embelished or made up.Let me spell it out for you;First, tell
me the last time you got 25R at LAX 30 miles out on the Civet.Could
happen I guess, but I have never seen it.Further more, are you gonna
see a transformer go at 30 miles.Do you really think the airport would
go dead (Like the scene in the movie Airplane when the guy in the
tower pulls the plug).If you were the crew of the A340 on a vector to
final would you just fly though final if you had a localizer flag? An
A340 doesnt even need ground based equipment to fly an approach.And
what about their TCAS? I can go on with this but I hope you have the
picture.
Kilo Mike, you should work on recocnizing internet folklore instead
calling people names.

I gotta second what Ried is saying here.How can the radios AND the
Localizer go out long enough for this to happen.The Civet is for 25L
not the right.
This sounds like a fish story to me.I think KiloMike is a troll and
should go away.
KU

F. Reid writes:

Further more, are you gonna see a transformer go at 30 miles.

At least this part is certainly possible. If it's a large transformer with an
arcing failure and the weather is reasonably clear, you'll see it. It's
essentially a multimegawatt arc lamp, brighter than a lighthouse.

Do you really think the airport would
go dead (Like the scene in the movie Airplane when the guy in the
tower pulls the plug).

If it's a very large and important transformer, it might, until emergency
supplies could take over (but I would expect immediate transfer, not seconds
of delay).

An A340 doesnt even need ground based equipment to fly an approach.

How does it line up with the runway and land?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.