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Surprised to learn there was significant windshear at their destination; an A320 flight crew chose to land regardless because their alternate was no better.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 916097 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201010 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | A320 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Landing |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Check Pilot Captain Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 25000 Flight Crew Type 9600 |
| Person 2 | |
| Function | First Officer Pilot Not Flying |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 21 Flight Crew Total 7000 Flight Crew Type 900 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence |
Narrative:
Forecasts winds [at destination] were 25038g44 all day. Ceilings at 3;500 AGL with good visibility.moderate to severe turbulence started around 3;000 MSL about 20 miles out on final to runway 22. When we contacted tower for landing clearance he advised 'previous aircraft reported plus and minus 30 KTS on final; windshear reports at 1;000 ft; several aircraft have gone around; you are cleared to land runway 22'. Had I been aware that these conditions had been in effect for hours and were forecast for hours more I would never have departed. Dispatch never said a word.our alternate had similar conditions. We discussed windshear preventive measures and a flaps 3 approach and landing was flown. Airspeed was all over the place. We experienced a loss of 40 KTS at one time but the aircraft recovered back to mini GS. Most of the final approach was plus or minus 30 but never less then 150 KIAS. At 1;000 ft we did get the 'windshear' warning four times but it stopped and again IAS never got below 150. The turbulence was mod [with] a few severe jolts. We also had the 20 KTS gain below 1;000 ft. Just prior to touchdown tower reported winds at 26038g47. We touched down about 1;500 ft down the runway and slowed very quickly in about 3;000 ft to taxi speed.needless to say this was an unexpected end to an unplanned reassignment with no fore-warning. Until the tower issued our clearance we had no idea these were the conditions at our destination. We had several high probability and a few medium probability windshear indications and yet ATC controllers were allowing flights to land and takeoff. We do not train for planned windshear approaches and landings. However; at no time did we allow our airspeed to reach an unsafe state nor did we feel the aircraft was in any dangerous or unrecoverable position. This is one of those real world events that we had never encountered. It seems that dispatch needs to notify crews in advance of current field conditions like these and that perhaps we need to train our pilots for extreme wind events like these.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Surprised to learn there was significant windshear at their destination; an A320 Flight Crew chose to land regardless because their alternate was no better.
Narrative: Forecasts winds [at destination] were 25038G44 all day. Ceilings at 3;500 AGL with good visibility.Moderate to severe turbulence started around 3;000 MSL about 20 miles out on final to Runway 22. When we contacted Tower for landing clearance he advised 'previous aircraft reported plus and minus 30 KTS on final; windshear reports at 1;000 FT; several aircraft have gone around; you are cleared to land Runway 22'. Had I been aware that these conditions had been in effect for hours and were forecast for hours more I would never have departed. Dispatch never said a word.Our alternate had similar conditions. We discussed windshear preventive measures and a flaps 3 approach and landing was flown. Airspeed was all over the place. We experienced a loss of 40 KTS at one time but the aircraft recovered back to mini GS. Most of the final approach was plus or minus 30 but never less then 150 KIAS. At 1;000 FT we did get the 'windshear' warning four times but it stopped and again IAS never got below 150. the turbulence was mod [with] a few severe jolts. We also had the 20 KTS gain below 1;000 FT. Just prior to touchdown tower reported winds at 26038G47. We touched down about 1;500 FT down the runway and slowed very quickly in about 3;000 FT to taxi speed.Needless to say this was an unexpected end to an unplanned reassignment with no fore-warning. Until the Tower issued our clearance we had no idea these were the conditions at our destination. We had several high probability and a few medium probability windshear indications and yet ATC Controllers were allowing flights to land and takeoff. We do not train for planned windshear approaches and landings. However; at no time did we allow our airspeed to reach an unsafe state nor did we feel the aircraft was in any dangerous or unrecoverable position. This is one of those real world events that we had never encountered. It seems that Dispatch needs to notify crews in advance of current field conditions like these and that perhaps we need to train our pilots for extreme wind events like these.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.