WestJet Denies Close Call at St. Maarten

[ScudRunner-d95]

Judge for yourself





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[Chuck Ellsworth]

Well from reading everything available on the internet it seems they really did get close to the water well before the runway.


If Westjet is claiming that is acceptable I wish they would explain it a bit more.


I have not flown a 737 but the 767 and the A320 had altitude call outs that would have started well above that height above the water.


We will just have to wait and see if Westjet clarifies this a bit more.

[Eric Janson]

[quote author=Chuck Ellsworth link=topic=5828.msg15242#msg15242 date=1489281159]
Well from reading everything available on the internet it seems they really did get close to the water well before the runway.


If Westjet is claiming that is acceptable I wish they would explain it a bit more.


I have not flown a 737 but the 767 and the A320 had altitude call outs that would have started well above that height above the water.


We will just have to wait and see if Westjet clarifies this a bit more.
[/quote]


The auto altitude call outs are customisable by the operator - not all our aircraft have a '1000' or '500' call which would be nice to have.


Another issue that nobody has mentioned are Optical Illusions.


In reduced visibility the horizon will be closer (i.e:- Lower relative position on the windshield). This causes the illusion of a high pitch attitude and an instinctive nose down input can result. This can happen when transitioning from IFR to VFR as well.


Not sure how many people even know about this or if it's in any manuals anymore.


2 incidents and an accident involving Canadian Airlines recently. In all cases a [b]non precision approach[/b] was being flown - it's looking like there may be an issue with the way these are flown.