On Autopilot, UPS 1394 Comes in Low and Short
“You have to realize that hill is there or you could come in too low.”
A flight safety spokesman told Reuters that landing at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport can be tricky “because it is nestled among hills and that is especially true of Runway 18.” Kevin Hiatt, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation told Reuters’ Birmingham-based journalist Verna Gates that a “full instrument” landing (autopilot) was not highly advisable at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport.
The UPS Airbus A300 cargo plane with two crew members aboard reportedly clipped trees as it approached the runway before crashing into a hill just short of Runway 18. According to NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt, the autopilot was engaged until the last second of recorded data.
Former Delta pilot Hiatt emphasized:
“It is not a full instrument landing. You have to visually fly into that runway.”
This is the second time in less than two months that the NTSB is investigating a crew’s use of autopilot in the final seconds of landing as a possible contributing factor in a deadly crash. On July 6, 2013 Asiana flight 214 crashed upon landing at San Francisco International Airport after coming in “too low and too slow” while reportedly on auto pilot. NTSB is continuing its investigation into the cause of the Asiana flight 214 crash which killed three young passengers.
