Hacker News Reader

Comment by jbg_ | Hacker News Reader

* Conditions were clear. The pilot landing would likely have seen the aircraft on the ground in plenty of time to go around.

* Conditions were clear. The pilot landing would have an increasing probability of noticing their mistake from lights on the runway and taxiway as they got closer to landing.

* After being alerted that the pilot landing could see lights on what they thought was the runway, the ATC would likely have paid closer attention to the various tools available to them to see the location and heading of the aircraft.

And finally, the one factor that happened to be the first of these to happen:

* Multiple pilots looking directly toward the oncoming aircraft, one of whom alerted ATC.

Just because this happened first doesn't mean the other things failed or wouldn't have happened.

View on HN

> And finally, the one factor that happened to be the first of these to happen:

> * Multiple pilots looking directly toward the oncoming aircraft, one of whom alerted ATC.

I don't get this.

You're an engineer/pilot/whomever filing for {the current system/pilot/plane/whatever-needs-approval} to get approved. The power-that-be (e.g. FAA) asks you what your safety margins are. You cite "other pilots looking directly at my aircraft in the 30-second span of my mistake" as one of your "safety margins"? ...what?

If you think that's bad, wait until you discover what safety margins exist on the highways, and how much professional training drivers receive.

I'm inclined to agree with you. Airports tending to be full of hyper-aware pilots who are communicating on the same radio frequencies as you shouldn't really be considered a safety margin, but it can still prevent accidents sometimes.

Incidentally, Aviation Herald reports[1] that "AC-759 had already overflown taxiway C by about 0.25nm when ATC instructed the aircraft to go around" and further that "it is estimated that AC-759 overflew the first two aircraft by 100 feet".

100 feet isn't much, and I imagine this was utterly terrifying for the pilots lined up on the taxiway, but 0.25nm past the beginning of taxiway C is basically touchdown point on the runway (had they been lined up with it), and they were still 100 feet above the ground. That indicates pretty strongly that the pilot of AC-759 had noticed their mistake and was taking evasive action already, before ATC instructed them to go around.

[1] https://avherald.com/h?article=4ab79f58&opt=0

Wow, that's nice to know. Thanks for that bit of info!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com