The Briefing Room - Learning from Experience

ECONOMY VERSUS SAFETY -

THE PROFESSIONAL’S DILEMMA
By Captain Tom Becker I guess you know that Approach and though the FSF say that a 500’ AGL
Landing Accidents (ALAs) are still one gate is OK in VMC Conditions.
Tom Becker is an active airline captain,
of the top killers in aviation. The Flight
flying mainly in European & African skies.
Safety Foundation has worked hard in But of course you cannot see this
this field for many years with the very human factor aspect inside the cockpit
positive result of creating safety gates from your working place - nor can I see
to prevent ALAs. The one which has yours. So I’ll try to help you understand
the greatest influence on our flight our needs on the flight deck in the
decks is the Stabilized Approach hope that as a result you will not issue
Concept*. such clearances - or only with reluc-
tance - in the future.
Put simply, this means that every flight
MUST be stabilized on approach not Our Stabilized Approach Concept does
later than 1000’ AGL. It is not meant as not only mean that the aircraft must be
a goal - it is a hard limit! stabilized on finals at the correct speed
and configuration; just as importantly,
With a jet like the common B737 it the flight crew themselves must also
Working in aviation means teamwork.
requires you to start further configur- be mentally stabilized.
We, the pilots and you, the ATCOs are
ing the aircraft from the intermediate
all part of this team, even though we
flap setting no later than 2000’ AGL, In ideal conditions (standard ILS
are not physically in the same place. It
which means around 7NM on finals - approach in daylight/CAVOK without
is therefore important that we all have
and, depending on actual weather and adverse wind conditions, landing on a
the same mental model of a situation
the environmental situation, further dry runway without any special consid-
all the time.
speed reduction may be necessary. erations and an alert crew working well
together) it is manageable to fly at
I would like to draw your attention to
Now, here comes the practical side and 170/180kt to the marker and complete
a particular flight hazard - one which
your influence: You are well aware that the remaining cockpit activities (switch
you as an ATCO can help to prevent,
the outer marker or equivalent fix is and lever settings, speed reduction, RT
thus making an important contribution
usually located around 5 NM from the and checks) during the ~30 seconds
to safety. I’m referring to Un-stabilized
threshold, which in a pilot’s terms remaining before the 1000’ gate.
Approaches, which often lead to
means around 1500’ AGL. This means
Approach and Landing Accidents (like
that if you ask us to “maintain 170/180 In a B737 you must start lowering the
CFIT or runway overruns or short-
to the marker”, we cannot do it without gear at 2000’ AGL (~7NM finals) and
comes).
rushing our work, and thus producing configure your flaps further to one step
unnecessary risks for our flight. before final landing flaps so that you
I want to look at safety versus eco-
can maintain this high speed on
nomic interests - or human & aircraft
Additional risks? - You might ask, approach with high power set.
performance restrictions versus flow
“why?” Remember that most accidents Although this is not good for noise
management; this usually concerns
in aviation occur in normal operation, abatement, nor for fuel consumption,
speed restrictions on the approach.
not in non-normal situations such as an this is the only safe way of achieving
Specifically, the often-heard clearance
aircraft system failure; and it is always your set goal of maintaining high
during the approach, “maintain
the human factor which has the great- speed to the marker and being fully
170/180kt to the outer marker,” or
est influence in an accident - either in stabilized by 1000’ AGL.
“maintain high speed during the
causing or preventing it. Therefore it is
approach”.
recommended that we stick to the But as you know, everyday operations
1000’ Gate in VMC conditions, too, even are not always conducted in ideal con-

* Flight Safety Foundation Approach and Landing Accident Reduction Tool - see www.flightsafety.org/home.html

January 2007 Page 16 HINDSIGHT N°4

 The Briefing Room - Learning from Experience

ditions. I’d like to explain to you the situational awareness and working In this case, you will have to counter-
risks resulting from some commonly effort than a precision approach. act for ballooning during flap exten-
encountered cockpit conditions, which sion and vertical speed adjustment due
do not allow the procedure described Once again it is the human factor that to speed change. All this, together with
above, but require a very much earlier makes flying a non-precision approach bad weather and maybe manual flying,
stabilization on final approach. critical. can turn an “easy” non-precision
On most airliners a pilot can use the approach into a flight hazard. One
1. FLYING A NON-PRECISION autopilot to help him with such things unfortunate example in European air-
APPROACH as tracking. If you are lucky you can space was the accident of a Crossair
also use a lateral navigation mode, Jumbolino in ZRH in 2001.
Unfortunately there are still non-preci- which enables the computer to fly the
sion approaches at some airfields, approach track without further atten- Therefore, when using any kind of non-
although this type of approach tion from the flight crew. Otherwise precision approach, please calculate
increases the risk of an accident by a you must constantly readjust the head- your approach sequence so that every
factor of five. ing to keep on the final approach track. flight crew can start the approach in
This is not a big thing in itself, but final configuration at the final
Of course it is quite true that every together with descending along the approach speed.
pilot should be able to fly such an prescribed glide path it is much more
approach. But a non-precision stressful, especially if you do not start Please do not ask us to “maintain high
approach cannot be treated in the the approach in the final configuration speed as long as practicable”, either.
same way as a standard ILS approach. and speed due to a requirement to There might be colleagues in the cock-
It should be treated as an abnormal maintain high speed as long as practi- pit who want to help you with your
procedure which requires a lot more cable. flow management, but overestimate

HINDSIGHT N°4 Page 17 January 2007

The Briefing Room - Learning from Experience

their own crew performance and thus generate dangerous windshear poten- Approach Speed - the final approach
increase the risk of an unstable tial. Early establishment in the final speed - depends upon the wind you
approach for themselves, resulting in a configuration and speed is the best give us with the landing clearance. We
higher risk of an approach and landing countermeasure against these threats. take our so-called Vref (value depends
accident. on weight and selected flap setting) as
A tailwind component on finals may the basis and we have to add an incre-
2. VMC VERSUS IMC AND DAY- also make it very hard to lose speed, ment, depending on the wind. For
LIGHT VERSUS NIGHT depending on your aircraft type and example, a steady headwind compo-
weight. It’s as if somebody is pushing nent (HWC) of 16 kt requires us to add
Basically, on an instrument approach you from behind while you are trying half, i.e. 8 kt. If the wind information you
there is not much difference between to brake and bleed off speed. Although provide is, e.g. HWC 16kt gusts 28, we
flying in VMC and IMC, in daylight or at we have speed brakes installed, their have to take half of the steady wind
night. But in IMC there are some more effectiveness varies a lot between air- (8kt) and add all the gusts (28-16=12
considerations of situational awareness plane types (e.g. on a B737 they are not kt), which means altogether, 20kt
- such as icing, or weather assessment nearly as effective as on an A310). added. On a B737-800 with a typical
in the go-around area - that the flight landing weight of ~63 tonnes, this
crew has to deal with. For a good A tailwind on finals will also increase means a speed of 163kt. Seems to be
assessment you need mental capacity the required landing distance, espe- easy to calculate, but when flying in
and time. If you have to rush your land- cially on a wet runway. This might not gusty weather conditions, manually
ing items because you are flying be a problem on a long runway (e.g. and while doing checklist items, dis-
170/180 to the marker you might not >3000m) but on shorter runways it can tracted by auto call-outs it can be
have this mental capacity when you be a big problem. This is because even nearly impossible. Tunnel vision and
need it. Night time itself always brings if you touch down in the touchdown loss of situational awareness is often
the risk of fatigue, which can diminish zone (TDZ) correctly, most of your brak- observed in our cockpits.
your mental capacity dramatically too. ing will be on a slippery surface due to
rubber debris from other aircraft in the 5. COCKPIT ATMOSPHERE AND
3. TAILWIND & CROSSWIND TDZ, and most importantly, in the TDZ FATIGUE
at the far end, which you will enter on
Often the wind aloft on final approach a short runway. The working atmosphere in the cock-
is not the same as on the runway. pit is a factor that you as an ATCO really
Therefore as a pilot you have to deal In winter operations the runway can be cannot assess. Although the voice you
with a changing wind situation on the extra slippery because of de-icing fluid, hear sounds positive, alert and compe-
final approach which can also lead to which is washed off our wings while tent it might not reflect the actual feel-
windshear conditions. If, for example departing at a speed of ~80 kt. So a ing on the flight deck. Unfortunately,
you encounter a negative windshear, tailwind on landing has to be avoided problems of hierarchy and a poor
you will have to react quickly by and a flight crew has to assess the sit- working atmosphere - or even one that
adding more power to regain speed. uation and be able to discuss it in the is too good - are still observed on our
But if your throttles are at idle due to crew in time during the final approach. flight decks. This alone, or coupled with
the fact that you are reducing speed, You therefore once again need mental factors like illness or fatigue, increases
e.g. when configuring after passing the capacity and time, which you can only the risk of errors which will not be
outer marker, the engines need time to have if you are established early detected and caught. Analysis of
spool up - time you may not have enough. Approach and Landing Accidents
when encountering windshear. As you showed that in many cases, necessary
also know, thunderstorms, even when 4. GUSTS callouts for deviations and the neces-
not on the final approach path but in sary call for a go-around when becom-
the vicinity, or orographic causes may You will be aware that our Target ing unstabilized were omitted due to

January 2007 Page 18 HINDSIGHT N°4

 The Briefing Room - Learning from Experience

bad CRM-behaviour and absence of becoming an incident or even an acci-

teamwork on the flight deck. dent - not your CEO or mine. Our man-
agement will always say that flight
Fatigue or illness itself reduces human safety is the paramount goal and not
performance immensely. In particular, it on-time performance or perfect flow
has been found that fatigue can reduce management. Let’s work this out
situational awareness. As it makes together and try to avoid high speed
sense economically to keep our aircraft approach clearances whenever we can.
flying round the clock, we on the flight
deck have to cope with the effects of Thank you for your help and for read-
fatigue. Although “napping” is usually ing this article.
possible on the flight deck during the
cruise, it cannot compensate for a duty
time of 12 hours or more, or a very RECOMMENDED ELEMENTS OF A
early start in the night when you have STABILIZED APPROACH
to carry out an approach to a con-
gested airport in unfavourable weather All flights must be stabilized by 1000 8. Specific types of approach are sta-
conditions. Therefore fatigue itself feet above airport elevation in IMC and bilized if they also fulfil the follow-
requires everyone to work as close to 500 feet above airport elevation in ing: ILS approaches must be flown
the safest standard as possible, requir- VMC. An approach is stabilized when all within one dot of the glideslope
ing an early stabilization on approach, of the following criteria are met: and localizer; a Category II or III
too. approach must be flown within the
1. The aircraft is on the correct flight expanded localizer band; during a
Lastly, I have two options when you path; circling, approach wings should be
issue me with a clearance requesting 2. Only small changes in level on final when the aircraft
high speed on the approach. Either: heading/pitch are necessary to reaches 300 feet above airport ele-
maintain the correct flight path; vation; and,
1. I acknowledge your request by say- 3. The airspeed is not more than VREF 9. Unique approach conditions or
ing, “WILCO”, and comply with it, or, + 20 kts indicated speed and not abnormal conditions requiring a
less than VREF; deviation from the above elements
2. I say, “Sorry, unable due to flight 4. The aircraft is in the correct landing of a stabilized approach require a
safety,” and start to stabilize my configuration; special briefing.
approach. 5. Sink rate is no greater than 1000
feet/minute; if an approach An approach that becomes unstabi-
As a preventer of accidents and inci- requires a sink rate greater than lized below 1000 feet above airport
dents, what would be your choice 1000 feet/minute a special briefing elevation in IMC or 500 feet above air-
based on the information above? should be conducted; port elevation in VMC requires an
6. Power setting is appropriate for the immediate go-around.
Daily operation and our subjective feel- aircraft configuration and is not
ings concerning the demands of our below the minimum power for the Source: Flight Safety Foundation
management may generate an atmos- approach as defined by the operat- Approach and Landing Accident
phere of time pressure for both of us. ing manual; Reduction (ALAR) Task Force
But as you might know, in the end it is 7. All briefings and checklists have
always you, or me, or my colleagues in been conducted;
the cockpit who are the last line of
defence to prevent a situation from

HINDSIGHT N°4 Page 19 January 2007