Not as loud as this is!
Posted on 01/04/2003 11:36:07 PM PST by Rome2000
Residents: Airliner Flew Close to Condo
The Associated Press
Residents of a high-rise told federal authorities a China Airlines jumbo jet flew dangerously close to the side of their 41-story building.
Ana Marie Vaisanen said she could see passengers inside the Boeing 747 as it swept past her 12th-floor condominium at Century Center Saturday morning.
"This roar became louder and louder and louder ... and I look out and there is a 747," Vaisanen said.
Some residents told television station KITV the plane came within 30 feet of the building and that one of its wings passed over the fourth-floor recreation deck.
Building resident Sylvia Thomas was walking her dog when she looked up and saw the jet.
"It went behind the building and came out the other side," she said.
Tweet Coleman, the Federal Aviation Administration's Pacific representative, would only confirm witnesses reported a China Airlines 747 was involved.
"We're doing an investigation on it, so I really don't have any specifics at this time," Coleman said Saturday night.
A call placed to the airline's office at Honolulu International Airport seeking comment went unanswered.
At 350 feet, Century Center, a mixed retail-office-residential condominium building, is one of the tallest structures in Hawaii.
Last modified: January 05. 2003 1:47AM
Maybe they should order a few spares.
Looks like a lot of drinking going on the night before some of these guys take off.
So this guy was either flying the approach correctly or he was better than a dot deflected off the localizer and/or glide slope? Also, I think most 74 pilots and equipment are Cat IIIC qualified which may throw a monkey wrench into all of this.
My guess is it would be on landing - they take off relatively steeply out over the ocean and by the time they get anywhere near downtown (10 miles) they're way higher than that office/condo building.
I've flown in and out of HNL a lot since 1994 (we live on Oahu) and we've never flown OVER the city - always over the ocean. The closest we came was a little 9-seater to Moloka'i that followed the coast pretty closely till we got to the airport. A friend is an Aloha pilot, and unless their restrictions have lifted quite recently, they had rules against getting close to anything of substance, which would include anything over the city.
Sorry - I don't do airplane-speak (grin). A correct approach is NOT over Honolulu itself, especially that low. The guide slope (if that's what I think it is) sounds about right if he were over the ocean coming into the airport, just a bit too far north...
"HONOLULU - Federal aviation officials say a China Airlines jumbo jet was slightly off-course as it approached Honolulu International Airport, but not enough to substantiate high-rise residents' claims that the plane was dangerously close.
Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the Boeing 747 was less than a mile off course.
"It was on a different approach than would have been normal," Kenitzer said. He said the plane normally would have remained on course above the ocean, but would not speculate why it flew slightly further inland.
Residents of a 41-story building near Waikiki say the jet was much closer."
Good grief, you too?
It was a spur-of-the-moment trip in 1992 to Central America that almost ended it for me and my wife. I booked TACA and our first stop was Guatemala City. We were flying a brand-new 737 and as we approached GC, we were flying over heavy overcast with only the tips of the local snow covered volcanoes visible. As we descended through the overcast, we emerged into a narrow, desolate, jungle shrouded canyon. It was like flying in a tunnel, because we were below the ridge line on both sides and the overcast hid the tops of the canyon. The pilot set 10º flaps and less than a minute later increased that to 15º flaps and lowered the landing gear. About the time he set 20º flaps I turned to my wife and said, "This damn canyon's getting narrower!"
It was about then that we heard the roar of engines suddenly brought to max power and the plane shaking violently as the pilot pulled the nose up sharply and raised the gear. As the plane banked right I could see what had panicked the pilot so; we were very near the end of a box canyon!
About 30 minutes later we were on the ground in GC. We were supposed to stay on board the flight, because our destination was San Salvador City, but I wanted to talk to the flight crew about that "missed approach" and since they exited the plane, so did I. I caught up with a pilot that had been dead-heading on that flight and at first he tried to deny that anything had gone wrong, but I was in no mood to be put off like that or lied to and he finally coughed up the excuse that the transmitters for the air navigation system located at the GC airport had gone off line and they had tried to dead reckon themselves through the clouds to the airport and instead found themselves in that box canyon. He said, at first they thought this was the canyon they usually see on final approach to the GC airport, but realized at the last second that they were in a dead end box. How they missed the numerous mountains in the area, as they climbed out blind through that overcast, I'll never know.
I've got about a million miles under my belt, mostly as a passenger, but also as a private pilot and I've been in some damn hairy situations. But in all that time that was the closest I've ever come to a landing I couldn't walk away from. I could hear in my head the voice of my dying father's last words to me: "What ever else you do Boot, don't fly non-scheds or foreign flag carriers" (he spent 40 years of his life as an engineer at United). Even dead, the ol' boy was still right. I'll walk before I fly TACA again!
Regards,
Boot Hill
Not as loud as this is!
Plane inquiry may take 2 weeks The FAA says the jet's path may have been in an acceptable range -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com
A Federal Aviation Administration investigation of whether a China Airlines flight passed too close to high-rise buildings early Saturday will probably take two weeks, a spokesman said yesterday.
"I can't speak (about) the investigation while it's ongoing, but it seems from initial reports that the plane may have been off somewhat, but within (acceptable) boundaries," said Mike Fergus, an FAA regional public affairs spokesman.
But the post-dawn incident with China Airlines Flight 017 is "a potential safety issue, and safety issues do not get stuck on a back burner," he said.
The Boeing 747 had been cleared for a visual landing, so it was not being closely tracked by air-traffic controllers at the time, Fergus said.
However, its exact path will be mapped using automatic recording tapes and then assessed as to whether it was within standards, he said.
Those exact standards will vary according to wind and weather conditions and other factors, he said.
There was no reason for any homeland security measures to be invoked regarding the incident "because we knew who they were and where they were going and what they were doing," Fergus said.
The plane apparently landed at Honolulu Airport on schedule, he said.
People in the Century Center condominiums on Kalakaua Avenue were among the "series of John Q Citizen calls that came in to the FAA and alerted us to this," Fergus said. "The FAA conducts investigations on all aircraft incidents or accidents."
Should it be determined that the plane's flight path was a safety concern, the airline faces civil penalty fines, Fergus said.
China Airlines officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
A staffer at U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye's office confirmed that it has asked the FAA to report its findings.
Gov. Linda Lingle also is concerned about the incident and will review a copy of the FAA report when it is ready, said her spokesman, Russell Pang.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Federal Aviation Administration
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