Lion Air 737-800 crashes on landing

The Captain (15,000 hours) took command after the First Officer lost sight of the runway in the rain, on final approach. They may have hit a microburst, as they're saying there was a problem on approach, the weather changed, and they dropped into the ocean. The FDR has been recovered, but they're having problems with the CVR, due to waves. The entire aircraft will be moved to a nearby beach soon.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thanks for the update!

P

The crew never had sight of the runway during the approach, but continued to descend below minimum altitudes. They were performing a non-precision approach to the runway, and as they passed through 900 feet the copilot said he could not see the runway. The aircraft gave a "minimum" warning at 550 feet, but the crew disconnected the autopilot and autothrottles, and continued the descent.

At 150 feet, the captain took over the approach, and the copilot again said he couldn't see the runway. At 20 feet the aircraft gave a ground proximity warning, and the captain ordered a go around, but the aircraft impacted just a second afterwards.

www.flightglobal.com...

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thanks for another update. Almost sounds as if they were descending faster than they thought they were. It is always hard to tell because we were not there. It sounds to me like a combination of weather and pilots too eager to land. The big question is was there a micro burst!

P

reply to post by pheonix358


From the sound of things to date, no there wasn't. I haven't heard any reports of other aircraft saying there were any in the area, or any weather except rain. From this report it sounds like the crew just had a bad case of gethomeitis and weren't paying attention to their approach checklist the way they should have been. They should have initiated a go around no later than the 550 foot mark when they couldn't see the runway.

reply to post by Zaphod58


That is what I was thinking. 20 feet sounds a fraction too low to start go around procedures

So, Pilot Error!

With the co-pilot doing the landing I would have thought the pilot would have had all the time in the world to be monitoring the instruments. It is Okay to say there are good and bad in every bunch but bad pilots are a way to get people killed.

Thanks again for the update.

P

reply to post by pheonix358


Crew Coordination problems have led to more accidents than just about every other cause combined. One pilot doesn't think he has the authority to say something, or that he has too much authority, and it leads to a breakdown in communications between them, and something really important doesn't get said. The worst of them was Tenerife when a KLM 747 collided with a Pan-Am 747.