This Accident shares a “Call Back” Report from the Aviation Safety Reporting System that is applicable far beyond aviation.
In this case, the pilot was fatigued and just wanted to “get home.” He had a “finish the mission” focus that could have cost him his life. Here’s an excerpt:
I saw nothing of the runway environment…. I had made no mental accommodation to do a missed approach as I just knew that my skills would allow me to land as they had so many times in past years. The only conscious control input that I can recall is leveling at the MDA [Rather than continuing to the DA? –Ed.] while continuing to focus outside the cockpit for the runway environment. It just had to be there! I do not consciously remember looking at the flight instruments as I began…an uncontrolled, unconscious 90-degree turn to the left, still looking for the runway environment.
To read about this near-miss and the lessons learned, see:
http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/docs/cb/cb_436.pdf
Category: Accidents, Current Events, Documents, Human Performance, Performance Improvement
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Hello Mark,
Thanks for this post really appreciated.
Cheers
Linda
Comment by Linda Watson — July 25, 2016 @ 9:20 pm
Every approach must be planned to include the Go Around, at any time in the approach; this is a classic scenario – reliance on personally-perceived skill to solve all problems. All crews – single and multi, must brief the approach and landing. Remember the old saying “The superior pilot uses superior judgement to avoid situations that might require superior skill”… Also when tired it is more important that SOPs be strictly adhered to..
Comment by john kirke — July 26, 2016 @ 2:51 am