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I don't think there's any indication that these pilots were under any kind of undue stress when they lined up their approach? If at any point during the several
by mseebach 9y ago
I don't think there's any indication that these pilots were under any kind of undue stress when they lined up their approach? If at any point during the several minutes of their final approach they'd looked even once at their ILS they'd have seen that they were way off.
- throwanem 9y agoFinal approach is the most stressful two or three minutes of an otherwise unexceptional flight; there's a great deal to do, and very little time in which to do it, during a period in which the aircraft's proximity to the ground, and low available energy, make it very easy for what would otherwise be a minor mishap to instantly place everyone aboard in imminent danger of death. I don't suppose I would call such stress "undue", since every commercial flight ideally ends with a landing. But the probability of helmet fire is directly proportional to the degree of cockpit stress, and the ILS alignment indicators are very easy to overlook. I suspect the user interface could be improved, but I'm not nearly familiar enough with the subject domain to imagine how.
- mseebach 9y agoAgreed. Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that we gang up and witchhunt the pilots for not checking the ILS, my agenda was simply to point out that the technology does indeed exist.