We Too Lo

[patric]

Federal officials are investigating a Southwest Airlines jet that triggered a low-altitude alert as it prepared to land in Oklahoma City but was still nine miles from the airport.
According to data from Flightradar24, the plane descended to about 525 feet above the ground as it passed over Oklahoma City suburbs on the way to Will Rogers World Airport.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-officials-are-investigating-southwest-airlines-low-flight-okla-rcna158279

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/local/2024/06/20/low-flying-commercial-jet-skims-oklahoma-city-suburb-wednesday-morning/74157643007/

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Maybe he thought he was flying into San Diego instead of OKC.

https://youtu.be/u7BK4gyr7GI?si=Xf8sKq7TiwkOkJKr

[dbacksfan 2.0]

A good description from Juan Browne a Boeing 777 pilot who has done great analysis of other incidents

https://youtu.be/Mb3PNASDbh4?si=xXmAckxB5q2o3vcf

[Hoss]

A good description from Juan Browne a Boeing 777 pilot who has done great analysis of other incidents

https://youtu.be/Mb3PNASDbh4?si=xXmAckxB5q2o3vcf

As a former pilot (No longer have the paper) this is scary and I have a feeling this was pilot error.  I agree with his take about backing up night visual approaches (hell, even daytime approaches) with instrument landing setup.  He makes a point at the end that having instruments on can keep you from landing on the wrong parallel.  Almost sounds like this pilot was fighting fatigue, however I'll reserve judgement until the NTSB/FAA finishes investigating.

Also, I've heard Southwest pilots love landing not necessarily on the most active runways (here in Tulsa they typically land airliners on the 10000 foot n/s 36R/18L), but the ones that will get them to the terminal the fastest.  Now here, that is typically 18L in the summer, but if TIA is in north ops (landing to the north), if the crosswind component isn't too bad, I've heard alot of SWA pilots ask for the crosswind runway (8/26) if it's not closed.  It's an easy turnoff just north of the gate area.

[Red Arrow]

Flying at night is one of the main reasons I got my instrument rating.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

I think pilot error will be the cause, faulty cockpit/instrument management, possibly lack of training/not understanding how systems work. It doesn't really make sense to fly a visual at night onto a non ILS runway unless it was weather related. While not drawing a direct comparison, it sounds somewhat like what happened to Asiana Air flight 214 the hit the sea wall while landing in San Francisco. The pilot was relying too much on the autopilot and auto throttle controls not realizing that the configuration was wrong until it was beyond too late, and that happened on a clear day in broad daylight.

I've flown in and out of Tulsa a lot. Landing and taking off on 8/26 is always fun, and every time it was on Southwest and it was an approach from the east and take off to the west. Landing a couple of times I swear the pilot was trying to stand the thing on it's nose while braking and reverse thrust, and on take off, the pilot would turn on the very last access to the runway on the east end and then firewall the engines on take off.

I know the traffic on 18L/36R extremely well. I lived on N 78th E Ave in a house just a couple of hundred yards from the UAW Hall at Pine & Memorial. This was before they did the noise abatement for that neighborhood. I really hated it during the winter when they would do touch and goes with KC-135's or older 737's would take off.

The last time I flew to Tulsa a couple of years ago it was on an Embraer 175 for AA. When we came in to land on 18L, I think the pilot landed a little late, because I could see the AA sign on the maintenance base out the window and we hadn't touched down yet. We touched down and quickly hit the reverse thrust, then a little bit later hit the reverse thrust again so that the pilot could make that last angled taxiway onto the apron. Just a strange landing.

[Red Arrow]

I really hated it during the winter when they would do touch and goes with KC-135's or older 737's would take off.

A friend at VA Beach when I was in the Navy lived under the approach to one of the runways at NAS Oceana.  F4 Phantoms doing touch and goes were very loud.  Couldn't even hear each other talk without shouting when a F4 went overhead.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

This showed up in my YouTube feed today. Seems AeroUnion flight 7002 from Mexico City to LA had a bit of a problem with his directional awareness. This was from a couple of weeks ago.

https://youtu.be/B__r9OocUKk?si=giALzK-et3PsTTcM 

[Red Arrow]

This showed up in my YouTube feed today. Seems AeroUnion flight 7002 from Mexico City to LA had a bit of a problem with his directional awareness. This was from a couple of weeks ago.

"bit of a problem" is an understatement.  Much longer and they may have been joined by the military.