To: george76
At SFO, runway 29L has a 4-light PAPI system on the left side of the runway.
When the aircraft is on the glide path, 2 lights are red, and 2 lights are white. If the aircraft is significantly below the glide path, all 4 lights are red.
12 posted on
07/07/2013 8:20:18 AM PDT by
justlurking
(tagline removed, as demanded by Admin Moderator)
To: justlurking
After 30 years of Air Traffic Control experience, most as Tower Watch Supervisor in the USAF, this was a
Pilot Error Crash.
The pilot came in too steep, with too much airspeed to bleed off, so
he put it into a stall position to get rid of the airspeed.
But he stalled it out and got lucky that he belly landed it into the underrun, and the closed portion of the runway, before the landing threshold and leaving a portion of the tail in the bay.
Both the PAPIs and the Glideslope were NOTAMed off due to the displaced landing threshold.
Had they been on the point of touchdown would have been too short for a safe landing.
But what I'd like to know is the compression rate and control instructions from the air traffic controllers starting with his descent from SF Center, through SF TRACON to the handoff to the tower.
Did the controllers keep him high in altitude and not allow enough of a descent rate due to traffic departing under him (the four-post operation of a busy TRACON)?
And did the controllers keep his speed up with their control instructions, until too short of a final when they handed him off to the tower, and not allow him time to bleed off the airspeed, due to the arrival rate of aircraft they were shoe-stringing down final at that time?
19 posted on
07/07/2013 8:28:01 AM PDT by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: justlurking
31 posted on
07/07/2013 8:39:37 AM PDT by
NonValueAdded
(Unindicted Co-conspirators: The Mainstream Media)
To: justlurking
Waaaaay Back when I took flying lessons, my instructor taught me the following on VASI lights..”Red over white, you’re alright, white over red, you’re dead”.
One of those things that just sticks with you.
39 posted on
07/07/2013 8:45:14 AM PDT by
SueRae
(It isn't over. In God We Trust.)
To: justlurking
“At SFO, runway 29L has a 4-light PAPI system on the left side of the runway.”
It’s called a VASI (Visual Approach Slope Indicator) There are two groups of four lights spaced some distance apart on the approach end of the runway. If both sets of lights show “white” to the pilot, he’s high, if both show “red” he’s below the standard glides lope ( which is, at most airports, 3 degrees down). He’s on the glide slope when the far set of lights are white and the near set are red.
I have read in some local accounts that the plane had an unusually high rate of descent. The VASI would have been all red in this condition.
To: justlurking
Red over white, doing alright.
white over red, you’re gonna be dead.
What my instructor said, anyways ...
113 posted on
07/07/2013 11:11:10 AM PDT by
Blueflag
(Res ipsa loquitur: non vehere est inermus)
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