goldeneagle wrote:
It's assumed everywhere, a let down was done in cloud. But, from my admittedly short reads, it seems the flight departed in decent conditions, and the bad weather was on the arrival end. Is there anything definitive anywhere about a descent at destination, or is it possible that the flight was running at treetops for that last however many miles to arrive there ? I've never flown that area, but google terrain maps look pretty flat to me.
The report does talk about a descent in the vicinity of destination, but, I didn't see anything about how this was concluded, and no mention of how / why a low level .. run in was not considered as the arrival vector. While certainly not a pleasant or comfortable trip, google maps terrain view suggests, with a 300 foot ceiling, it's emminently do-able from a hundred or so miles back.
According to the report, ceilings were about 150-200ft AGL at the time of the accident, so it seems pretty certain that he either descended over 1500 feet below minimums, or the ice brought him down (but if so, why no emergency call?)
Here is an interesting titbit from the report:
"During a line indoctrination flight, the occurrence pilot conducted a missed approach at the destination airport due to low cloud. The pilot was advised by the supervising pilot that senior management would not be pleased with the decision to conduct a missed approach."
Perhaps the Keystone management should move their operation to Russia - I hear they would fit in quite well over there.