Nok Air plane nearly hits hospital building

[F4UCorsair]

F4UCorsair, TAWS (EGPWS) which was probably fitted to this newish aircraft DOES provide warnings in landing configuration.

Info is in the "No Warning" paragraph.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_proximity_warning_system

PS. It's a long time since I was an approach controller or private pilot, I only do AREA CONTROL now, but the searching through numerous web pages to find the answers has enhanced and refreshed my knowledge, I have also got some questions for the FlyBe Dash8 pilots this afternoon !

Likewise FC, several years since I retired, certainly before the introduction of TAWS, but a brief search of Class A TAWS (which this would have been)showed this

1. Class A TAWS equipment must provide indications of imminent contact with the ground for the following conditions:
   1. Excessive Rates of Descent
   2. Excessive Closure Rate to Terrain.
   3. Negative Climb Rate or Altitude Loss After Take-off
   4. Flight Into Terrain When Not in Landing Configuration
   5. Excessive Downward Deviation From an ILS Glideslope.
   6. Voice callout “Five Hundred” when the airplane descends to 500 feet above the terrain or nearest runway elevation

Of course, in the landing configuration, it does give downward deviation from the glide slope, so to say it does give warnings in the landing configuration is correct, but not the usual "Too low Gear....Too low flaps"warnings.

When I give it a bit of thought, I think the öld"GPWS also had a "Don't sink" warning when in the landing configuration.

I'll leave it at that.

Edited February 13, 2016 by F4UCorsair

[chainarong]

^^^ My apologies. I've never heard of an airline being allowed to make scheduled flights under visual flight rules (VFR).

So at a minimum he was flying with visibility below what was legal for VFR, and didn't have or ignored the GPWS built into the plane.

I must learn to expect such "surprises" from Thailand. A scheduled airline flying VFR???

Cheers.

I supposed this would explain why pretty well every year during burning season they close at least one provincial airport due to lack of visibility.

I wouldn't be surprised if they close this one.

Correction: I woudn't have been surprised, but this is Thailand.

In Thailand most are visual, after the Koh Samui crash a ceiling vis of 1000 ft is required, not every airport is equipped with the same tech as JFK

[Pilotman]

Guys, it doesnt matter what advanced instrumentation the aircraft has, or what nav facilities are available at the airport, if the prick in the front left hand seat has poor judgement.

[F4UCorsair]

Has it been suggested he had poor judgement?

As I said above, it was a non precision approach, which frequently do not have the aircraft lined up with the runway, and a missed approach may be either straight ahead or a special procedure if there are terrain clearance concerns.

From the little we know, bearing in mind that reporters mostly know sfa about aviation, it sounds to me that there was probably nothing abnormal......non precision approach, not visual at the minima, missed approach not on runway heading, and the illusion that the aircraft "nearly" (whatever that means), almost took the top off the hospital.

If the approach procedure had the aircraft lined up with the runway, the missed approach procedure had been on runway heading, and the hospital had been on the runway centreline a couple of miles out, exactly the same illusion may have easily been reported.

Seems to me another case of Thai bashing, for whatever obscure reason. You can't judge the standard of an airline's pilots by your assessment of the quality of one landing, or some other event taken in isolation!!

Edited February 13, 2016 by F4UCorsair

[BSJ]

Was the pilot aiming for the Emergency dept or the Mortuary?

[sandgroper2]

It is not just a Thai infastructure thing, believe it or not the Gold Coast airport in Australia .Coolangata OOL does not have ILS in place yet.They have international flights land there.

Its manned by Ozzie air traffic controllers, recognized as the best trained in the world, just like our Ozzie airline. They dont need no dials or gadgets to land an AC.

[sabaijai]

Video from channel 3 this morning of the incident.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gAjxe82NHNs

the video doesn't show the incident.

[The Fat Controller]

sandgroper2, I am on ATCO, my colleagues in the Gold Coast do not "land" aircraft, they keep them apart, either visually, procedurally or using radar.

They certainly need a good deal of "gadgets" as you put it, the more the better actually.

My final comment on the Mae Sot go-around, all aircraft MUST land on Runway 27 as the international border is just a short distance west of the airfield, so given the recent weather of high pressure and easterly winds, a tailwind may have been an issue and along with the smoke probably made the approach difficult.

[sandgroper2]

sandgroper2, I am on ATCO, my colleagues in the Gold Coast do not "land" aircraft, they keep them apart, either visually, procedurally or using radar.

They certainly need a good deal of "gadgets" as you put it, the more the better actually.

My final comment on the Mae Sot go-around, all aircraft MUST land on Runway 27 as the international border is just a short distance west of the airfield, so given the recent weather of high pressure and easterly winds, a tailwind may have been an issue and along with the smoke probably made the approach difficult.

When i worked for ATCO, in SA, we were making transportable cabins.