301 San Diego Cessna 340 Crash – the Perils of not Understanding Circling and Visual Approaches
Aviation News Talk podcast
Glass Cockpit Publishing
4.8 • 730 Ratings
🗓️ 16 November 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Max talks about why the pilot of a Cessna 340 in San Diego turned right instead of joining the localizer and later crashed. It all came down to the pilot’s lack of understanding of how to fly a circling approach, and his inability to communicate that he’d like to switch to a visual approach. This miscommunication led to a controller sending him back into IMC for a second approach. Sadly, at the time, the pilot was in VMC and was preparing to land. ATC audio provided by LiveATC.net
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Mentioned on the Show
Spatial Disorientation
Instrument ACS
Final NTSB Report - N7022G Cessna 340
NTSB Docket for N7022G
Pencil Whipping or falsification
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have you heard about the Cessna 340 crash in San Diego that I talked about yesterday in Episode |
| 0:06.6 | 300? And do you know how to do a circle-to-land approach and how to ask for a visual approach? |
| 0:12.2 | And if you heard the story, did you wonder why this accident pilot asked the approach controller, |
| 0:17.8 | am I clear for runway 23, when he wasn't even yet established on the |
| 0:21.9 | ILS-28-right approach? Now, that transmission really bugged me, so I spent several hours |
| 0:27.1 | re-analizing the data and now have a simple explanation for the pilot's behavior, and it ties |
| 0:32.6 | in directly with the deficits in his instrument proficiency checks that I mentioned yesterday. |
| 0:39.0 | Sadly, it appears to be a case of a pilot who lacks some critical knowledge on how to fly two different types of |
| 0:43.3 | instrument approaches and who failed to communicate properly with ATC. Please stick around and I'll explain. |
| 0:49.8 | Hello again and welcome to aviation news talk. My name is Max Truscott. I've been flying for 50 years. I'm the author of several books and I'm the 2008 National Flight Instructor of the year. And my mission is to help you become the safest possible pilot. If you're new to the show, take a moment right now and touch either the subscribe key or if you're using the Apple podcast app, the follow key, |
| 1:11.8 | so that next week's episode is downloaded for free. And if you didn't hear yesterday's episode, |
| 1:16.6 | you may want to stop, go back now to listen to it to get the full background on the accident, |
| 1:21.0 | and then return to this episode. You can find it at AviationNewsTalk.com slash 300. |
| 1:26.3 | But if you want to continue listening now, |
| 1:28.1 | I'll quickly summarize yesterday's episode by saying that a pilot flying the ILS-28 right, |
| 1:34.1 | with a circle to land a runway 23 at Montgomery Field in San Diego, failed to join the |
| 1:39.3 | localizer. And just at the moment that he reached the localizer, he began to turn to the right. The controller |
| 1:45.5 | noticed this, canceled his approach clearance, and issued a series of vectors and climb instructions |
| 1:50.3 | that the pilot failed to follow before crashing into terrain. The NTSP probable cause was loss of |
| 1:56.6 | control due to spatial disorientation. This is certainly what happened, but it doesn't tell us |
| 2:02.8 | why it happened. NTSB reports are great at reporting the facts of what happened, but it's left to |
| 2:09.1 | us as readers of the reports to put ourselves in the shoes of the pilot and try to figure out |
... |
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