An EasyJet pilot narrowly missed a mountain range by less than 800ft with 190 passengers on board.
Paul Elsworth, 61, was flying the budget airliner from Manchester to the Egyptian resort of Hurghada last month when he flew too close to a mountain range as he descended to land.
The flight on Feb 2 was travelling at an altitude of 3,100ft, approximately 800ft above the range’s tallest point – when pilots normally fly over it at 6,000ft.
The mountain moved, obviously. Geology, eh?
Pah! In Hong Kong pilots would regularly miss the mountains by 50 feet.
Since I intend to fly down to Sydney in a few weeks, I’m happy to read this sort of thing, Tim!!!!
jgh
Yeah ! Exactly.
800ft ?
Wuss.
The aircraft was descending at 4,000ft/min, so was at least 12s vertically from the tallest peak in the mountain range and the GPWS [ground proximity warning system] radar did its job. On the basis that the pilot has been suspended pending investigation and not arrested, we can assume that he did what he was supposed to do upon hearing “terrain, pull up” — namely point the nose up and set engine thrust to climb. Nobody was ever in any danger.
The biggest issue appears to be that he didn’t report the incident until the following day instead of doing so immediately after the flight.
2300ft terrain doesn’t qualify as a mountain. In my long ago schooldays I was taught it takes 3000ft to make a mountain.
The pilot was sightseeing, hoping to be able to say “Ladies and gentlemen, if you look out your port windows there are some mountain goats to be seen…”
@jgh
I thought the riskiest part of landing at Kai Tak airport used to be dodging the lines of washing strung between the high rise buildings.
I believe the old Kai Tak approach instructions included: turn off ground proximity warning, aim for mountain, take hard right.
According to an old friend who flew 707s for BOAC and later BA – the routine for landing at Hong Kong involved aiming at a chequerboard pattern painted on the mountain at the back of the city, turning sharp-right at the very last moment and “flying down the main street with the aeroplane slightly tilted” so that the wings didn’t catch too much washing from the flats’ balconies! There were certainly ground-crew whose job was removing bits of washing from the leading-edges and engine-cowlings.
Alan (’twas his name) said he took part in a London University study of “high-stress occupations”, one of which was airline pilots… They measured the level of stress with personal heart-rate recorders, and without exception the highest heart-rates recorded were all during landing at Kai Tak.
4000+ fpm ROD is rather high when you’re only 3200′ up. There’s a bit more to this than simply missing high ground by 800′.
Was he not under guidance of Hurghada ATC?
Navy pilot. Ex Air Force pilots are more conservative flyers. Navy jocks landed on ACCs.
Asiaseen, 2300ft mountains provide exactly the same lithobraking services as 3000ft mountains.
On my first project in HK I worked in one of the office blocks on Nathan Road. I’m not sure which was more disconcerting, the first landing at Kai Tak or then watching the planes fly past and being able to eyeball the pilot.