Description

On 21 January 2010, a Mystere Falcon 50 being operated by TAG Aviation on a positioning flight from Biggin Hill to London City in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) began a descent at a high rate below its cleared altitude of 2000 ft amsl because the aircraft commander believed, on the basis of external visual cues, that the aircraft was on a final approach track for Runway 27 at destination when in fact it was downwind for Runway 09. After an alert from ATC as the aircraft passed 900 ft agl at a rate of descent of approximately 2200 fpm, recovery to a normal landing on Runway 09 was achieved.

Investigation

An investigation was carried out by the UK AAIB. It was found that the flight crew was two type-qualified instructor Captains of whom only one had been to London City previously. It was decided that he would be aircraft commander but that the other pilot would act as PF and occupy the left hand seat so as to become familiar with the necessary steep approach procedure at London City.

The event was described as follows:

“The commander was visual with the ground and could see two bright lights ahead, which he believed were the touchdown zone lights for Runway 27 at LCY. The DME indicated that the aircraft was about 4 nm from the airport. At about this time another aircraft on the frequency was instructed to adjust its heading slightly to establish on the localizer and subsequently to descend with the glideslope. Shortly afterwards (the incident aircraft) was given a further slight heading change.