Flight International — 22 August — 4 September 2017

LETTERS

fiightglobal.com 22 August-4 September 2017 | Flight International | 37

[email protected]

STUDY

Vital research must be acted on

Regarding your article “Tests

show impact of UAV collision

on airliner windshield” (Flight

International, 1-7 August); this

vital research from BALPA, the

UK Military Aviation Authority

and the Department for

Transport concluded that a

drone causes far more damage

than an equivalent bird strike.

Significant damage was recorded to helicopter and airliner

windshields and rotors during the study. Larger drones

caused potentially catastrophic damage.

Pilots simply want to ensure the collision risk is understood

and mitigated as best as possible. We hope the violent reac-

tion to this study from some in the drone community settles

down and that sensible, proportionate, safety-driven meas-

ures are now implemented.

Capt Tim Pottage

BALPA Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems working group

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No mention of

differing rules

The Transportation Safety Board
of Canada’s (TSB) report into the
2015 Air Canada Airbus A320
accident was discussed in your
half-year safety review (Flight In-
ternational, 25-31 July).
The crew had not recognised
an unsatisfactory aircraft posi-
tion and flight path from their in-
struments, but descended below
the minimum instrument alti-

The evidence is clear

BALPA

The opinions on this page do not necessarily represent those of the editor. Letters without

a full postal address supplied may not be published. Letters may also be published on

flightglobal.com and must be no longer than 250 words.

tude (DH/MDA) with the autopi-

lot taking the aircraft further into

danger. It was actually below the

runway level for some time, and

the 138 occupants survived sole-

ly by good luck.

I am a former member of the

ICAO operations panel, and one

of my many criticisms of the

TSB’s report is its failure to men-

tion that Canada’s regulations

differ fundamentally from ICAO

regarding the pilot’s required vis-

ual reference at decision height.

ICAO requires the pilot to

have visually confirmed the air-

craft’s position and trajectory are

safe BEFORE going below deci-

sion height, but Canada allows

descent if cues “enable” an as-

sessment to be made.

This may result in a later reali-

sation that the flight path is actu-

ally not satisfactory – when, as in

this case, it may be too late to

avoid catastrophe.

Steve Last

via email

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