 |
37000 Feet | Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System |
|
B777 first officer reported that a policy change was made encouraging the pilots to complete dangerous autoland operations.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1608453 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201901 |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Final Approach |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | First Officer |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
As you know; [company] now wants pilots to conduct autoland approaches for aircraft currency vs the previous protocol where maintenance could restore the currency. My safety concern is that most approaches we fly are in weather above 800/2. Of course; there is an fom paragraph that address this. The paragraph notes that we must notify tower so they may protect the critical area. As [we] know; at busy airports; the critical area cannot and will not be protected. As required; ATC will notify us of the unprotected area. The fom goes on to say that while an autoland is authorized with an unprotected area; that localizer/GS beam bending may result in the possibility of a runway excursion. So [company] recognizes the possibility of a runway excursion with an unprotected critical area autoland; yet tell us to go ahead and chance it anyway. That's just plain old crazy. [Instances of this procedure causing this type of problem have already occurred.] if the logic break noted in the previous paragraph does not change [company's] mind on this procedure; I'd hope the [aforementioned incident] causes an immediate change in [company] procedures.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: B777 First Officer reported that a policy change was made encouraging the pilots to complete dangerous autoland operations.
Narrative: As you know; [Company] now wants pilots to conduct Autoland approaches for aircraft currency vs the previous protocol where maintenance could restore the currency. My safety concern is that most approaches we fly are in weather above 800/2. Of course; there is an FOM paragraph that address this. The paragraph notes that we must notify tower so they may protect the critical area. As [we] know; at busy airports; the critical area cannot and will not be protected. As required; ATC will notify us of the unprotected area. The FOM goes on to say that while an autoland is authorized with an unprotected area; that LOC/GS beam bending may result in the possibility of a runway excursion. So [company] recognizes the possibility of a runway excursion with an unprotected critical area autoland; yet tell us to go ahead and chance it anyway. That's just plain old crazy. [Instances of this procedure causing this type of problem have already occurred.] If the logic break noted in the previous paragraph does not change [Company's] mind on this procedure; I'd hope the [aforementioned incident] causes an immediate change in [Company] procedures.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.