Arkia AT72 at Tel Aviv on Jun 18th 2015, aligned with runway 08 while on visual approach to runway 12

Last Update: July 14, 2015 / 10:18:20 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jun 18, 2015

Classification
Report

Airline
Arkia Airlines

Flight number
IZ-5808

Departure
Eilat, Israel

Destination
Tel Aviv, Israel

Aircraft Registration
4X-AVX

Aircraft Type
ATR ATR-72-200

ICAO Type Designator
AT72

An Arkia Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212A, registration 4X-AVX performing flight IZ-5808 from Eilat to Tel Aviv (Israel) with 11 passengers and 4 crew, was on approach to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport in night conditions, the captain (45, 5,400 hours total, 3,850 hours on type) was pilot monitoring, the first officer (52, 13,550 hours total, 4,500 hours on type) was pilot flying. The crew planned for an ILS approach to runway 12 which would permit to switch to a visual approach. The crew acquired visual contact with the aerodrome early about 5 minutes prior to estimated arrival, requested cancellation of IFR and a visual approach to runway 12 and was cleared to join a right downwind for runway 12 with the restriction to not fly more than 3nm west of the runway. About a minute later, while descending through 2000 feet MSL, the aircraft joined the right downwind. The captain tuned the ILS runway 12 and started reading checklists. On downwind gear and flaps were extended. The captain was still working checklists when the first officer maneouvered the aircraft to align with the runway ahead. When the captain looked up he recognized however, that the aircraft had aligned with runway 08, at the same time tower called the aircraft, descending through about 600 feet at that point, instructing the aircraft to turn left and advising they were aligned with runway 08, also advising that an A320 had lined up runway 26 for departure, the captain radioed he had runway 12 and the A320 in sight. About 1.5nm from the threshold of runway 12 at about 600 feet AGL the first officer turned the aircraft left in a continuous descent, aligned with runway 12 at about 400 feet AGL, received landing clearance and touched down safely on runway 12.

Israel's Investigation of Air Accidents and Incidents (AIAI) released their final report in Hebrew concluding the probable causes of the serious incident were:

- Pilot error resulting in carrying out the approach to the wrong runway in night conditions, however, after detecting the error no go around was initiated and the aircraft proceeded to the correct runway getting stabilized at 100 feet AGL.

- Tower identified the error and acted prudent and effectively with the instruction to turn left and subsequently assisting the continued approach to runway 12

- The captain acted correctly when tuning the ILS as cross check and thus immediately identifying they were aligned with the wrong runway, also seeing the lights of the A320 facing towards them. His actions were the key for regaining situational awareness and correcting the error even if tower had not intervened

- The problem of identifying runways 08 and 12 in the bright urban area in night conditions while in a visual turn poses a challenge to flight crews and has led to safety occurrences in the past

- Reliance on visual approaches requires briefing ahead to identify the proper clues, determine the correct point to turn and review the typical errors

- The aircraft was not stabilized below 300 feet AGL as required for visual circling approaches

- The touchdown was normal, the approach did not result in unusual or dangerous maneouvers

- The crew cooperation was a significant factor in preventing the deterioration of the occurrence

The AIAI analysed that the first officer while turning final noticed the lights of runway 08 which were far more prominent than the lights of runway 12, turned his eyes and "locked" onto the runway lights.

The captain began to realize the error about 1.4nm short of runway threshold 08, about 1.3nm before the threshold he noticed the lights of the A320 on the runway, assessed that they could turn left and re-align with the correct runway and still meet the stabilized approach criteria. The flight data recorder showed however that they did not manage to have the approach stabilized at 300 feet AGL still turning until about 100 feet AGL.

The aircraft began to turn left off the extended runway 12 center line while descending through 578 feet AGL, then entered a 15 degrees bank angle to align with the runway still needing to turn 30 degrees when the aircraft descended through 300 feet AGL.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jun 18, 2015

Classification
Report

Airline
Arkia Airlines

Flight number
IZ-5808

Departure
Eilat, Israel

Destination
Tel Aviv, Israel

Aircraft Registration
4X-AVX

Aircraft Type
ATR ATR-72-200

ICAO Type Designator
AT72

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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