airtraffic

Author Topic: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)  (Read 20073 times)

Offline DingerX

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Not a good day for the AAL 2293, from Dallas to San Francisco. Roughly twenty minutes after becoming airborne, the 767-300 returns to KDFW, contacting tower at 14:19/20:00 on the KDFW Tower 1500Z log with a medical emergency. Two hours on the ground, then they fly to San Francisco, arriving to scattered thunderstorms over California. Cleared to 28R (20:22 on the 2030Z KSFO Tower log) , Tower gives them a "Change to/Cleared to Land 28L" (22:05), which they read back. Then United 820 (A320 to Vegas) is cleared to line up and wait on 28R (23:50). Thirty seconds later someone calls "Is that airplane going to land on 28 R?", "Negative, 28 L", "Are you sure?", "American 2293 Go Around". AA2293 goes around, United 820 taxis clear of 28R. UA 820 turns back on W and leaves seven minutes later, with a thanks for the help.
After going around, and landing the second time AA 2293 gets the dreaded phone number on ground.

I'll try to edit the audio this evening, unless someone beats me to it.



Offline DingerX

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2015, 01:43:33 PM »
First is the DFW tower recording of the medical emergency return. I didn't dig out everything pertaining to AAL2293 out of DFW. I imagine you could find more to the story.

Second is the arrival. Thunderstorms had moved through the area, and the wind was from the South, meaning that all SFO traffic was through 28L and 28R, making things rather busy. Tower called "Change to/Clear to Land 28R", but AAL 2293 only read back "Clear to Land".

Offline Rick108

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2015, 03:04:07 PM »
Tower called "Change to/Clear to Land 28R", but AAL 2293 only read back "Clear to Land".
I think AAL 2293 clearly reads back 28 Left after the change, but apparently he still heads for 28R.  Not good...   :-o

Nice work on the audio, by the way - thanks!

Offline DingerX

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2015, 03:49:42 PM »
thanks. You are, of course, correct. I had already exhausted my free time editing the thing, and didn't properly reflect on the summary.
In effect, they are cleared to land on 28R, then the Change To/Cleared to Land 28L call comes, and the readback is "Cleared to Land 28L", without the "Change To". The combination of a very late and stressful flight with Tower at peak traffic produced some interesting results.

Offline VASAviation

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2015, 04:52:26 PM »
Hey guys!

Could you please tell me what does the lady says at 4:24 and at 4:38??

I'm working on a video about this and miss that part... :wink:


Offline geoffeg

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2015, 05:07:05 PM »
4:24:
Controller: "American 2293, for a possible pilot deviation, I have a phone number, advise ready to copy."
American 2293: "Ready to copy"
4:38:
Controller: "United 1723 what's the gate?"
United 1723: "1723, 89"
Controller: "1723 Bravo to 89"
United 1723: "Bravo to 89, 1723."

Offline VASAviation

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2015, 05:28:51 PM »
Hello Geoffeg!

Thanks for your help!

In the case of 4:38, I mean the moment when she refers to the 2293.

She says somt' like "Continue taxiing (something) behind you, use ALPHA and the number is..."

Thanks!  :-) :-)

Offline geoffeg

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2015, 05:32:43 PM »
"American 2293, Continue taxiing 'till traffic is clear in behind ya. Use Alpha"

Offline VASAviation

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2015, 05:47:40 PM »
Awesome, Geo!!

Working hard on the video with dynamic images about what happened :-) :-)

Thanks!!!

Offline sonnycol

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2015, 08:18:16 PM »
The sidestep to a visual for 28L is common at SFO. If AA didn't break off the approach for 28R that is indeed a deviation.

You have to be ready for that clearance but you are not required to accept it if you can't fly it safely. Asiana 214 went down that road.

In this case it sounds like AA was a little behind the airplane and misread the comm while reading it back like they heard it.

They were on frequency and heard it when United started asking questions. There's some 'splainin' to do, but maybe there's an explanation.

Offline VASAviation

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #10 on: April 09, 2015, 03:34:44 PM »
Hey guys!

Here I post my latest video and want to open a debate about this authorizations that are permitted in the FAA but not in the ICAO regulations.

I mean "clear someone to land when the runway is not vacated or free"

I'm sure we all know that in ICAO rules it's said something like "Continue approach, number 2" but in the FAA we say "Number 2 behind whoever, cleared to land"

But... what if the first traffic on that row has an accident and stops on the runway and the number 2 gotta go around?

Oh, so easy! We have an ATC!!!! "Traffic2, precedent traffic on runway, Go around!!!"
And what about a radio failure between ATC and Traffic2?? Imagine traffic 2 cannot receive the "go around" instruction and they still on approach. Visibility is pretty bad. They cannot see the Traffic1 crashed on the runway. Will they land?? Will they see the traffic early enough to go around? Will they see the traffic on minimums and have trouble to go around? Could we have two accidents instead of one?

In my opinion, this is something the FAA has to think of...


Offline VASAviation

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #11 on: April 10, 2015, 04:41:01 AM »
Hahahaha absolutely agree Brad!!

But, I always sit on the worst position. And I always ask myself, what if....??

You talk about the efficiency I think this is more about the ATC workload. If the ATC cleares a row of traffics to land, he "has not" to be alert anymore with those traffics. Get the quotation marks.

If FAA worked as ICAO does, the ATC cleares one and has to be alert where that traffic is to cleared the one behind. Maybe, this produce more workload for the ATC...


Offline DingerX

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #12 on: April 10, 2015, 07:37:24 AM »
Good work. On your transcription: it's "Verify gate A57", not "Verify you're a 767".

And both ways of issuing landing clearances in visual conditions have their advantages and drawbacks. At moments of peak traffic, expect clearance on short final means that the a lot has to go right in a very short period: the previous aircraft needs to vacate/get airborne, and the controller has a very short window to get the "cleared to land" call out. The lack of that call in some cases will be the sole cause of a go-around, and that go-around will occur precisely at the moment of peak load on the controllers.

In any case, in this event, it's entirely irrelevant. 28L and 28R are very close together, and the angle from tower is insufficient to distinguish between what runway they're going to land at until they're very close in; sidestepping happens "all the time" at SFO, but only under conditions where the safety can be insured. The United crew saw what was happening, queried tower ("Is that airplane going to land 28R?"), then challenged ("Are you sure?"), then took action; the AAL crew at the same time had several visual and radio cues to go around (The Line Up and Wait might have sounded routine, but United's query most certainly got the attention of everyone on frequency), and they probably were already on their way when tower made the call. In this case, a short final "Cleared to land" call would have only emphasized what was obvious.

Either set of rules, the folks at the pointy end have the authority to keep things safe. ATC can only help. Everyone did their job.

Offline VASAviation

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #13 on: April 10, 2015, 08:08:59 AM »
Awesome post Dinger. And I definitely agree with you.

Thanks for the correction about the transcription.  :lol: :lol:

Offline svoynick

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2015, 07:43:58 AM »
Note, at about 1:12 in the SFO arrival audio, after UA820 advises that they've cleared 28R, tower then gives them a taxi instruction identifying them as "United 1060".  UA820 reads back with "United 820" but neither side clears up the mis-identification.

So technically, didn't UA820 read back and follow a taxi instruction transmitted to a different aircraft?

Now from the context, it's obvious that the instruction was intended for UA820.  But allowing context to override radio protocol isn't really how we're supposed to do it, right? If it were, we wouldn't have exchanges like this (which I have heard):

GND:  United 232, turn left on Bravo, hold short of 28L.
UA232: Left on Bravo, hold short 28L.
GND:  United 232, I need your ID with that.
UA232:  OK, United 232.
GND:  United 232, I need the readback and the ID all together.
UA232:  Left on Bravo, Hold short of 28L for United 232.

So it's interesting that they missed that.  And I'll note that the transmission in question included a runway hold short instruction.

Having said that:  mad props to the UA820 crew for the SA and eyes outside the cockpit that may have prevented something nasty from happening here.  That's the main takeaway.

Offline SFOTA

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Re: Bad Day at the Office (Medical Emergency and Pilot Deviation)
« Reply #15 on: April 26, 2015, 01:58:15 AM »
Good work. On your transcription: it's "Verify gate A57", not "Verify you're a 767".

It's "gate 57," which is in Terminal 2, concourse D, shared between American and VRD.  There is no "A57" at SFO, just for clarification.