Jumbo jet strikes building at Johannesburg airport, no injuries

[Asiantravel]

The First Officer, usually in the right hand seat, obviously wasn't keeping a very good lookout; or maybe he didn't like his Captain!

I was thinking the same thing.

But many captains leave such menial tasks as taxiing to their first officers so he or she probably had their hands full. Although from the pictures it seems that building seemed awfully close and you would have thought the first officer in the right-hand seat would have had some sense of the size of the “ vehicle “ before exercising their turn?

But then if they turned left onto the taxiway the captain could have had a better view of the proximity of the building before they turned?

Anyway it is probably not as embarrassing as the pilots who landed the Boeing 747 Dreamlifter last month at Col. James Jabara Airport instead of McConnell Air Force Base.

[JoeThePoster]

Gotta wonder about the quality of those SA buildings.

Im trying to the find the facepalm icon...

It's hidden behind the sarcasm smiley.

[laobali]

The First Officer, usually in the right hand seat, obviously wasn't keeping a very good lookout; or maybe he didn't like his Captain!

I was thinking the same thing.

But many captains leave such menial tasks as taxiing to their first officers so he or she probably had their hands full. Although from the pictures it seems that building seemed awfully close and you would have thought the first officer in the right-hand seat would have had some sense of the size of the “ vehicle “ before exercising their turn?

But then if they turned left onto the taxiway the captain could have had a better view of the proximity of the building before they turned?

Anyway it is probably not as embarrassing as the pilots who landed the Boeing 747 Dreamlifter last month at Col. James Jabara Airport instead of McConnell Air Force Base.

I was thinking back to my days (DC-4,7,8) when nosewheel steering was only at the left seat. Strangely I had a similar incident while still an F/O. Did I maybe leave the warning to the smug bastard steering it just a little bit late?

[khaosai]

Hi,

the airport lighting and signage are somewhat lacking in certain areas at this airport, which can pose a challenge, particularly at night. Lack of familiarity, with possible distractions could easily result in a mistake and cause this crew to continue taxying straight ahead rather than turn left towards the runway holding point.

Trying to judge wing tip clearance on large aircraft is very very difficult to judge during daylight, nigh on impossible at night.

Generally the pilot flying will taxi the aircraft, and certainly on this aircraft there is a tiller to allow the aircraft to be taxied from either seat.

There would probably have been 3 pilots on the flight deck, with many thousands of hours of experience between them, working for an airline with very high standards. The final report will make for interesting reading that hopefully pilots will learn from in the future.

[laobali]

Sure, but how many years has BA been flying into JNB - (Jan Smuts in my day)?

[khaosai]

Hi,

BA have been flying there for a long time, however it may well have been the crews first time visit. Unlikely but not impossible.

What they may have is some form of reference document that pilots can refer to and which highlights specific threats at that particular airport. Whether this threat was highlighted I don't know, but a good chance it will be from now on.

[Jay Sata]

The problem is familiarity breeds contempt. JoBurg is not a big complicated airport such as Schipol or Dallas Fort Worth.

Quite the reverse. However speaking as a both a helicopter and fixed wing pilot with three decades experience I fear boredom and routine is what catches out the modern airline captain. Air France 447 was a classic example of three pilots losing the plot.

Airline flight crew today are systems managers that taxi the aircraft to the runway, read from a checklist and rotate the aircraft in to the sky to a maximum altitude of 5,000ft whereby the autopilot fly's to the destination. They then monitor the flight until landing often on autoplit down to the ground.

The flight deck has lots of toys but sadly not a basic $100 dollar GPS which would have told them turn left!

How hard is it to look out of the window and realise the building is going to scrape the paintwork?

[khaosai]

The problem is familiarity breeds contempt. JoBurg is not a big complicated airport such as Schipol or Dallas Fort Worth.

Having flown into all 3 of the airports you mention I have no doubt Johannesburg offer challenges like the other two do.

Quite the reverse. However speaking as a both a helicopter and fixed wing pilot with three decades experience I fear boredom and routine is what catches out the modern airline captain. Air France 447 was a classic example of three pilots losing the plot.

With your 3 decades of experience have you actually sat at the point end of a modern jet airliner. From your paragraph I suspect not. The Air France loss was not attributed to boredom, routine or loosing the plot.

Airline flight crew today are systems managers that taxi the aircraft to the runway, read from a checklist and rotate the aircraft in to the sky to a maximum altitude of 5,000ft whereby the autopilot fly's to the destination. They then monitor the flight until landing often on autoplit down to the ground.

Flight crews are pilots first and foremost I can assure you. Monitoring plays a vital part of that. If the aircraft is not doing as intended then intervention is required. I am not sure where you got the max altitude of 5000 ft from.

The flight deck has lots of toys but sadly not a basic $100 dollar GPS which would have told them turn left!

How hard is it to look out of the window and realise the building is going to scrape the paintwork?

Trying to judge wing tip clearance on the 747 or any large aircraft for that matter is difficult.