13,000 feet above sea level on the sheer cliff called “Indian Face” by the locals, buffeted by freezing winds, crews rappelled from helicopters to search the wreckage in a dramatic rescue and reconnaissance attempt. No survivors were found.
The flame-charred tail of the twin-engine plane rested on the mountainside amid fuselage and assorted wreckage.
The Merida airport six miles away is hemmed in among mountains in a region notoriously difficult to navigate. Terrain forced searchers to camp a mile away and hike in. Pilots–including the one lost in this flight–receive specialized training to fly through the area.
Venezuela mourns.
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A federal hearing into a fatal plane crash last February in Buffalo, N.Y., is focusing on the training of the pilot. A top concern is the training the flight’s captain, Marvin Renslow, received from Colgan Air. (May 12
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Overland Airways flight 1186 swerved off the runway at Ilorin Airport in Kwara State of Nigeria on November 29.
The ATR 72 aircraft, which departed from the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja, veered off the runway after it landed at Ilorin Airport at about 4:45 p.m.
Authorities confirmed that all 59 passengers and 4 crew members remained unhurt.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is investigating.
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You’ve heard about Act I, the American Airlines Boeing, which landed without the benefit of ATC guidance at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
You’ve heard about Act II, the United Airlines Airbus, which also landed without benefit of ATC guidance.
So why was the tower offline? Simple. The controller apparently fell asleep on duty. The supervisor was on duty alone that night
It is interesting and perhaps significant to note that the media is much more alarmed about this than most pilots seem to be. The midnight shift at many airports has minimal traffic and there is only one air traffic controller on duty. As was the case at Reagan National, Pilots have access to other air traffic towers. When failing to raise National, the two planes that landed on Wednesday contacted a nearby Warrenton Tower.
The controller is not a beginner. He’s been on the job at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for 17 years. This was his 4th successive night on the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m shift. There’s no denying that he should not have fallen asleep, or that there should have been two controllers there. But there are some factors to consider.
The accident would have been a whole lot worse if there had not been established protocols for dealing with an airport deemed “uncontrolled.”
The first crew designated an advisory frequency. (Emergency procedures.)
The second flight crew was aware of the problem, having been informed via that frequency about the silent tower.
Washington noise abatement prevents all but a few midnight flights.
Yes it was a bad situation, but it could have been worse. It’s a good thing there were fall back procedures for the pilots to rely on. At least they never lost radar. And pilots are trained to land without ATC guidance, just in case something like this happens. And, after all, there are airports like Casa Grande, Arizona which are unmonitored and uncontrolled. Listen to the pilots in the audio below. They don’t sound at all stressed by the situation.
There are consequences that will be far reaching. A minimum of two controllers is going to be mandatory. The controller who fell asleep has been suspended and will be handled according to procedures in the Human Resource Policy Manual.
But there may be more to come after this. Policy changes, perhaps a lawsuit, perhaps even criminal charges.Or perhaps only retraining for the controller. Time will tell. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has ordered two controllers on the midnight shift at National.
Airport ATC Audio
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Discovery, Dragonfly Film and Television Productions deliberately crashed a $450,000 unmanned 727 in the Sonoran Desert of Baja California, Mexico south of Mexicali, Mexico. The plane was equipped with crash dummies, scientific sensors and experiments. Among other things such as creating a sensational topic for the Curiosity series, the crash is postulated as a study the crashworthiness of the aircraft’s airframe and cabin.
Pilots parachuted from the plane minutes before it was remote-controlled to a crash.
The video called “part of a scientific experiment for an unprecedented international television documentary” was captured by 19 cameras inside the plane and 2 on helicopters outside. The film will be presented as an episode of Curiosity.
After allegations of attaining a pilot license under “extraordinary circumstances,” Garima Passi came to public attention.
The flight school where Garima Passi had trained observed a hard landing, and determined that Passi had a disabling fear of aircrafts. Although the American Sabeena Training Centre she attended says that Passi “lacks basic aircraft control and she does not complete the gap between knowing and applying,” five days after attending a Uttrakhand training school, Passi was cleared to fly.
(We do not know if she attended the full course.)
Garima Passi quit SpiceJet airlines last month.
So how did she get a license in the first place, and how was she flying for Spicejet? It helped that her father is (or was) Director of Air Safety Northern Command?
RS Passi, the joint director of DGCA has been relieved of his duties pending probe into his role into his daughter procuring a fake pilot license.
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After allegations of attaining a pilot license under “extraordinary circumstances,” Garima Passi came to public attention. 