On the Airbands

If some of you reading this are sceptical and question what all the fuss is about, I might just add that a DC-10 jetliner on approach for landing at New York’s JFK International Airport almost crashed due to a passenger turning on a portable compact disc player.

The following story was supplied by Peter Holden of Scoresby in Victoria. It involves communications which took place between Melbourne Approach and an overseas 747-400 crew who were approaching Tullamarine.

Peter did not actually hear the conversation live. It took place early morning, around 5am, and he had recorded it on his voice activated cassette recorder while he was still sound asleep. A Kambrook timer turns on the radio, and Peter listens to the early morning arrivals while he travels to work on the train each day.

Anyway, back to the conversation that all the fuss is about. We will change the callsign of the aircraft to “Asian 721”. It was originally cleared from Mt William direct to Melbourne VOR on the 270 radial, which is an easterly heading. As you will note in the following conversation, it appears that an incorrect heading (020 instead of 080) was flown by the crew, and when they realised their mistake, they tried to cover it up by inferring the blame lay at the feet of the Approach controller. Read the conversation, then consider who you think it was who made the mistake in this sequence.

APPROACH: “Asian 721, Melbourne Approach, you have 36 miles to run for a left base, runway 34, descend to five thousand. ” AIRCRAFT: “Asian 721, descend to five thousand, clear vec- tors for three four. ” APPROACH: “Asian 721, turn right heading one zero five now. ” The aircraft is cleared to 3000 feet, and given QNH (baro-metric pressure) of 1027, then shortly afterwards, cleared to 2000 feet.

APPROACH: “Asian 721, report having the Runway 34 strobe lights in sight, and turn further right heading 080. * Shortly thereafter. . .

APPROACH: “Asian 721, confirm heading 080?” AIRCRAFT: “Affirmative, Asian 721. ” APPROACH: “Sir, you appear to be on a heading of 020, do you have the runway in sight?” AIRCRAFT: “Negative, no runway in sight. ” APPROACH: “Turn right, back to the right thanks” This is acknowledged by the aircraft, who is then told the runway is at three miles in their twelve o’clock position. The aircrew is then asked by Approach if they were flying a heading of 020 earlier, to which they answer “Roger”.

The aircraft is then vectored to a heading of 170 degrees. AIRCRAFT: “Ah. . . one seven zero degrees, and we have the whole airport in sight now. . . on our right!” APPROACH: “Okay, Asian 721, you only have one mile to run, so I’ll take you out for final. ” This is acknowledged, and the aircraft is instructed to maintain 2000 feet and turn right heading 340 degrees. AIRCRAFT: “The airport is behind us now at our four o’clock, ahh, so we can make it on our own now if you don’t mind ma’am!” APPROACH: “Asian 721, that’s fine, make a visual approach, restriction: not below one thousand five hundred until established on final, call the Tower on 120. 5 at two miles. ” Later, to the Ground controller. . . this message was passed by the Captain of Asian 721: “If you could pass a message to the Approach controller who was radar vectoring us for runway three four. Ahh, we were under the impression she was lining us up for the wrong end of runway three four, which was where we were aiming with the radar vectors she was giving us. We strongly suggest she look at the tape, because there’s probably a conceptual mistake there, and all we could see of the airport was the illuminated ramp, and were unable to locate the runway. We realised we were being lined up for the wrong end of the runway. We’re not gonna write up a report or anything, because it’s quite unusual in Australian airspace to get this sort of vectoring, so there must be some kind of mistake in her equipment, as the vectoring we were getting was totally off!” From the information supplied here, we have reconstructed the approach on paper, and it would appear the lady controller did things by the book, and that the Captain’s comments were quite unfair, and he was trying to extricate himself from a mistake the best way possible. By blaming someone else.

David Penn resides at Kew East in Victoria, and has recently returned from the USA, where he was working, and training at the same time for the FAA Private Pilot Licence (PPL), Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL), and Instrument Rating ab initio.

On one of David is long cross country flights for the CPL, Dave took his instructor along for the ride, as the instructor’s girlfriend lived in one of the towns where he was stopping for fuel, food, and drink.

They were approaching Jackson Mississippi for a fuel stop, and after speaking with Jackson Approach, they were cleared to make the approach and report right base for RW 15 Left at Jackson International. It was a crisp clear night, with great visibility, and there was a lot of chatter on Approach, and a fair bit of visible traffic. At this point, David and his companion had been flying for five hours.

At five miles, they dialled up Tower frequency and were cleared for final on 120. 9 MHz. David told his instructor that he was going to make best speed possible due to other arriving traffic which wasn’t on frequency at this stage. Approaching final, they slowed to 70 knots (130km/h) IAS in their trusty Cessna 152. As they turned final, they didn’t see any other aircraft lights amongst the lights of the city, or the hills in the background. So you can imagine their surprise when they heard the following: AMERICAN 272: “Jackson Tower, American 272 heavy, five mile final, can you give us an update on our traffic?” At this point, Dave and Co in the 152 were just turning final, about a mile and a half out from the threshold. Two heads had never snapped in unison to the left as quickly as theirs did, just in time to see the high intensity wingtip landing lights of the heavy jet snap on under their left wingtip! It made the boys conclude that the jet airline traffic was much closer than the stated three to four miles.

TOWER: “American 272 heavy, your traffic is a Cessna 152 turning final, showing about 65 knots on the ground here. ” AMERICAN 272: “That sounds like big trouble to me!” TOWER: “American 272 heavy, make a left sir, 360 degrees, where you are now, and Cessna 433 you’re cleared to land, and vacate that runway as soon as possible for landing traffic!” AMERICAN: “American 272 heavy, we’re going left 3-6-0 as directed (and sounding very hot under the collar!) As David Penn and instructor taxied to the GA apron, the American jet roared past on the after landing roll. They later found out there had been a very irate telephone call to the Tower from a very irate American Airlines captain, telling them how much extra fuel he’d had to burn to comply with their “little excursion”. Dave says, “I would have been happy to go round in the Cessna 152, no problem, for a total cost of two to three dollars at most!” John Lynch from Scarborough in Qld hopes you elicit a laugh from this anecdote.

Late evening, Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, many years ago, with two Ansett Fokker Friendships being vectored east of the coast for a Runway 16 arrival.

APPROACH: “Foxtrot Charlie Charlie, cleared for final make visual approach runway 16, contact Tower when established. ” VH-FCC: “Foxtrot Charlie Charlie. ” APPROACH: “Foxtrot Charlie Delta, track east of the coast for a right circuit Runway 16, you are number two to a company Friendship, turning final. ” VH-FCD: “Foxtrot Charlie Delta. ” VH-FCC: “Foxtrot Charlie Charlie established on final, Cap- tain requests how close we were to other aircraft. ” (sounding stunned) APPROACH: “What other aircraft?” VH-FCC: “Below us, when we turned final!” APPROACH:”Cripes, I’ve got something on radarnow. Thanks. Contact Tower 120. 5, goodnight. ” VH-FCC: “Goodnight and goodluck!” APPROACH: “Foxtrot Charlie Delta, vector heading for unknown traffic your twelve o’clock, please advise if sighted. ” VH-FCD: “Yair, confirm traffic our twelve o’clock low now, lights on. . . ” APPROACH: “Err, Foxtrot Charlie Delta, continue on that heading and advise!” (some minutes later. . . ) VH-FCD: “Jeeze, it’s all lit up like a bloody ship, Cripes, it’s a great big bloody passenger ship!” According to John Lynch, the Oriana, a P&O passenger liner had just departed Sydney Heads outbound. John was a radar technician with AWA Marine at the time. On their next trip back on the Oriana, John related to the Captain and radio operators on board what had occurred on their last trip out of the Sydney Heads. The ship’s Captain was tickled pink to know that professional aircrew and controllers can handle any situation that comes their way! Write to me at “On the Airbands”, PO Box 16 Georges Hall 2198 with your story for the column. For reply, please enclose a stamped and self addressed envelope. Until next month, good monitoring of the airbands.