Jetstar plane 'nearly hit' city: passenger

[Slats7]

Jetstar plane 'nearly hit' city: passenger- Local Cairns News | cairns.com.au

A PASSENGER on one of Jetstar's aircraft attempting to land at Cairns Airport during a torrential downpour and low visibility says the pilot had to accelerate and pull up steeply to avoid crashing into the CBD.

Paula Christ, who says she regularly flies in Australia and overseas, said she was "terrified" and feared for her life on Australia Day.


"This flight nearly hit city buildings and screamed straight up into the air to miss them," she said.


"I have never been so terrified.


"Obviously, a very near miss and no one is mentioning it."


But the airline and AirServices Australia say there was nothing to suggest the pilot had a near-miss or had to take quick evasive action.

 

[harvyk]

Yes, the most reliable of all aviation experts, the pax sitting at the back...

Lets ignore the fact that they do not have a view of where the aircraft is headed, and lets ignore the fact that they don't have approach equipment (which can "see" through cloud) built into the IFE's, so the pax would have no real clue if the plane was flying along the glidescope or not...

And lets not forget that even if the pilot did have to do a go-around it's about as newsworthy as me having to step on the brakes of my car to avoid a kangaroo...

Edit: and after reading the article it turns out she wasn't even sitting at a window seat...

 

[ric_melb]

So now we have a "No News" article from Cairns.
Agree with Harvyk entirely. She was sitting in an aisle seat so her vision would not have given her a very good outlook.
And given that the airline and Air Services Australia disagree with her, I think we can discount what she says.

I'm glad she wasn't flying into the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. She would have really got scared then!!!

 

[nlagalle]

Nothing to see here, move on!!

Besides if it was a "near miss" there would be an ATSB report on it.

Back seat pilots are worse than back seat drivers!

 

[markis10]

I was stuck behind this witness at a roundabout in Cairns recently, she was waiting for the car on the Bruce Highway in Townsville to pass through as she thought it was too close

BTW what has happened to the guidelines for posting news articles????

 

[Slats7]

I think she was dreaming.

 

[harvyk]

Nothing to see here, move on!!

Yes there is, she survived...

Just wait, I bet she is right now in negotiations with T-Shirt makers for the "I survived JQ926" T-Shirt, plus is right now doing deals with TT and ACA for the exclusive story...

How dare JQ \ AirServices \ CASA \ Airbus and the Labor Party not blow a routine proceedure completely out of proportion...

 

[mannej]

"Obviously, a very near miss and no one is mentioning it"

So if every go around was classed as a near miss, I'd get sick of reading about them.

I love how NoNews gets reports from these (obviously) qualified back seat pilots and take their word as fact. She had an aisle seat, and who knows what state she was in. So she got scared by a go-around. News worthy? Hardly

 

[Slats7]

It reminds me of Emirates Flight 407 where a pax said he saw lots of sparks from the tailstrike.

 

[Natt]

Well I figured this story was a tad inaccurate when it mentioned a plane almost hitting the Cairns CBD

Cairns and CBD are not two words that can be grouped together

Its tiny

I believe the passenger genuinely believes what they are saying - but thanks not news :!:

 

[harvyk]

I believe the passenger genuinely believes what they are saying - but thanks not news :!:

It's not if the pax believe something was wrong or not, having been in a go around (as I expect most frequent flyers have) I can easily understand why a pax would feel that something is wrong. The engines spool up, you start to feel G forces, and everything starts speeding up, futhermore it's usually unexpected. So it can really un-nerve some pax.

My big gripe is that news limited feels that this common event is a "news story", even after everyone who is in the know (aka JQ and ASA) said it's a non-event.

But then again the news limited motto is "Never let the facts get in the way of a a good QF \ JQ bashing story."

 

[docjames]

Frankly its about time some of this misleading reporting was cracked down on - some basic reseach including an independant body says there is no incident. But this sort of rubbish still gets published.

Frankly, Jetstar would probably have some sort of libel case if they pursued it, but as usual nonews gets away scott free with publishing rubbish (for the pedantic, i'm not a lawyer, so read that as libel case / or whatever the corporate equivaent is ).


Also, why is there not the equivalent of a broadcasting authority for print media to crack down on this rubbish. :evil:

 

[Blackadder]

Strange how no one in the City reported nearly being hit by a plane.

 

[samh004]

BTW what has happened to the guidelines for posting news articles????

Lately a few articles have had too big a quote.

But then again the news limited motto is "Never let the facts get in the way of a a good QF \ JQ bashing story."

Well, they gave her a voice that she wouldn’t have otherwise had. Even though her story wasn’t that accurate.

 

[Nigelinoz]

"Suddenly the plane roared and virtually went straight up.

Well then NASA can start using the Airbus to launch the space shuttle.
Seriously this is 'much ado about nothing' IMO.
At least the general consensus amongst the readers of the story seem to be that this woman needs to get a life.

 

[markis10]

The passenger is obviously not used to approaches without the aid of a glidescope, RWY33 is localiser with DME only, not full ILS, so the hands on approach is bound to be a tad different!

Someone show her a video of the checkboard approach to Kai Tak!


http://images.google.com/images?q=k...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQsAQwAA

 

[Justinf]

I find it impossible to believe the aircraft was in danger of hitting any CBD building in Cairns. To hit something in the CBD, the plane would have been several kilometres off course and almost touching down (there are no skyscrapers in Cairns!). Me thinks it's like one of my fishing yarns. Like last Friday, I caught nothing, but by Saturday night I had caught enough fish to feed the entire street.

 

[markis10]

I find it impossible to believe the aircraft was in danger of hitting any CBD building in Cairns. To hit something in the CBD, the plane would have been several kilometres off course and almost touching down (there are no skyscrapers in Cairns!). Me thinks it's like one of my fishing yarns. Like last Friday, I caught nothing, but by Saturday night I had caught enough fish to feed the entire street.

An aircraft right on the centreline passes right over the railway station and Cairns Central, thats only 400m away from the Sebel International and Sofitel, not several kilometres. If you look at the approach for RWY 33 Loc Z here: http://www.crc.id.au/xplane/charts/Cairns%20(YBCS).pdf the aircraft needs to be on the centreline from 15 nautical mile out with a missed approach being executed pretty much over the city at 900 ft decision altitude, thats gives you a buffer of 600ft between the aircraft height as it executes a right turn and the tallest building - the Sebel. Thats close but quite normal, in fact the Sebel is marked on the approach chart for that reason.

 

[Justinf]

An aircraft right on the centreline passes right over the railway station and Cairns Central, thats only 400m away from the Sebel International and Sofitel, not several kilometres. If you look at the approach for RWY 33 Loc Z here: http://www.crc.id.au/xplane/charts/Cairns (YBCS).pdf the aircraft needs to be on the centreline from 15 nautical mile out with a missed approach being executed pretty much over the city at 900 ft decision altitude, thats gives you a buffer of 600ft between the aircraft height as it executes a right turn and the tallest building - the Sebel. Thats close but quite normal, in fact the Sebel is marked on the approach chart for that reason.

Fair point. I've flown in from the north sometimes, but when the wind is blowing favourably, most aircraft do land from the south.

 

[markis10]

Fair point. I've flown in from the north sometimes, but when the wind is blowing favourably, most aircraft do land from the south.

The story indicates it was a Rwy 33 approach which makes sense, landing to the south you have the benefit of an ILS and an easy left turn avoiding the city if things go wrong, there would have been a story of the aircraft had it headed west on the missed approach!