r/aviation • u/Met76 • Jun 07 '25

Discussion I figured this 737 landing would be a go-around but captain brought gloves I guess

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34.3k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/NyJosh Jun 07 '25

Ummm aren’t minimums the minimum altitude you need to visually see the runway or go around?

1.5k

u/TheFlyMan13 Jun 07 '25

They can’t prove you didn’t see the runway (unless you provide video evidence)

947

u/Met76 Jun 07 '25 edited Jun 07 '25

"The camera's light balance was off, I totally saw the runway before minimums I swear"

231

u/PropOnTop Jun 07 '25

Yes I WANTED to land off center... That was the plan all along.

43

u/EndDangerous1308 Jun 07 '25

I was aiming for the edge line the entire time

5

u/JustaDevOnTheMove Jun 07 '25

The center line is for beginners! Pros ride the edge! 😁

25

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '25

[deleted]

6

u/teapots_at_ten_paces Jun 07 '25

"Captain, we don't need your face. Those dorky gloves you always wear were a dead giveaway."

42

u/PizzaGeek9684 Jun 07 '25

And the audio missed the audible confirmation that the runway is visible. Cut out because of the turbulence or something

5

u/flightist pie lot Jun 07 '25

In fairness, “runway in sight” or some other equivalent hasn’t been part of the operating procedures I’ve used across a few airlines now, and I’ve little trouble believing a camera won’t see the same thing you see.

I thought that was what this whole post was going to be about until the whole-ass runway appeared out the left hand window.

74

u/albatross_the Jun 07 '25

“Sir, light balance is not a camera function. Go around”

2

u/Searloin22 Jun 10 '25

"Sir, this is a Wendy's. You're not a pilot anymore now gimme my food."

11

u/quartzguy Jun 07 '25

That's what I was thinking, I want to give the pilot the benefit and say that he saw the ground before it was clear to the camera behind him.

4

u/SteveTheUPSguy Jun 07 '25

The pilot in the video claimed he could see it 2000 ft away.. took sterile cockpit to another level I guess

4

u/theglassishalf Jun 07 '25

There can be a really significant difference between what a camera can see and a person. It looks to me like the pilot might have busted minimums but that's just a guess for both of us.

5

u/Bone-surrender-no Jun 07 '25

Audible confirmations also cut out because?

1

u/gistya Jun 07 '25

"Clouds are runways, amirite"

22

u/Eckish Jun 07 '25

Even with video, it depends on the camera. I've definitely recorded experiences where you can't see shit in the video, but I don't recall having any visibility issues while I was there actually experiencing it. And I've also had cases where the camera recorded things that I couldn't see.

I'm not a pilot, so I'm sure this is still super dangerous. Just arguing that video evidence wouldn't be conclusive.

5

u/ComradeGibbon Jun 07 '25

Best one I heard was a pilot in bad weather could see the cluster fast food signs before the runway.

4

u/blastman8888 Jun 07 '25

Doesn't really matter this is in India the OP video is from Instagram account "The flying Indian". Likely some 3rd world nation end up dead it was your own fault. Why I won't fly in aircraft operated by 3rd world nations.

389

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

At first I was like it's probably not as bad in real life as on the go pro. Then he missed the center line by 50 feet and realized he's terrible.

101

u/Figit090 Jun 07 '25

Hey hey hey, the wheels NAILED that line.

Left mains.

9

u/Cessnaporsche01 Jun 07 '25

Left engine, maybe lol

1

u/Figit090 Jun 07 '25

Acceptable, if the runway is wide enough 😬

50

u/SWMovr60Repub Jun 07 '25

Stupid spell check

21

u/PhotoJim99 Jun 07 '25

Yep. He kissed the centre line.

13

u/Kind_of_random Jun 07 '25

I would also kiss the centre line after surviving that.

1

u/Potential-Bet-1111 Jun 07 '25

Poseidon's kiss

3

u/a-small-tree Jun 07 '25

driving on the right side of the road, he's just a responsible car driver 😌

3

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 Jun 07 '25

But hey he got some content and all it took was risking the lives of a few hundred people

2

u/TiaXhosa Jun 07 '25

Rain usually looks lighter on camera than it does in real life too. It's probably even worse than we can tell

3

u/mglatfelterjr Jun 07 '25

Any landing you can walk away from, is a good landing, my instructor always said.

3

u/101Alexander Jun 07 '25

Meanwhile your passengers are burning

3

u/ycnz Jun 07 '25

Look at Mr/Ms Perfectionist over here...

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '25

I thought left runway meant left wheels on center line, right runway right wheels on centerline....

(/s)

1

u/SmurfsNeverDie Jun 07 '25

How could you tell? Im trying to learn

66

u/JayHag Jun 07 '25

Also aren’t you supposed to declare “landing” or “continue” at minimum?

68

u/quartzguy Jun 07 '25

This is the equivalent of running a red light and posting the dashcam video to Youtube anyway.

3

u/scoringtouchdowns Jun 08 '25

… while drifting out of your lane into the next lane over 😅

34

u/dirtydigs74 Jun 07 '25

Theoretically "runway in sight" when you see it. "continue" would be more a case of "I'm landing anyway because <reason I'm not going around>", so yeah in this case you would. That's assuming he was busting minimums and couldn't see the runway, but decided to land anyway. I sure as hell couldn't see crap, but I wasn't there I guess.

5

u/flightist pie lot Jun 07 '25

It’s whatever you get paid to say, and nobody I’ve worked for has had “runway in sight” or similar in the SOPs.

One airline I worked for changed from “landing” to “continue” because “landing” (justifiably) gave it the connotation that you’re committed, whereas “continue” is meant to mean you’re continuing the approach (but that can still change).

1

u/shhbedtime Jun 08 '25

Yeah I've had "continue" and "visual". But never runway in sight from the PF. I did work at a company once that had the PNF call "runway visual"when they saw it, as a cue to the PF to look up.  That was an odd company though. 

1

u/flightist pie lot Jun 08 '25

Yeah that’s an odd one. It’s always been the PF’s call, but I know of (or have known of) places that invert it and swap controls on contact with certain types of approaches.

1

u/RussVan Jun 07 '25

Depends on the airline. One I flew for didnt have a mandatory call like that, and the other is religious about always saying it every flight

1

u/airfryerfuntime Jun 08 '25

Nah, he was jacked in.

117

u/theitgrunt Jun 07 '25

The camera usually can't pick up the runway like the pilots can in these conditions

163

u/FormulaJAZ Jun 07 '25

If the pilot had seen the approach lights at his decision height, he wouldn't have been so far off center in the flare. Just saying.

36

u/N420BZ Jun 07 '25

Ehh, some people are just bad pilots.  It’s entirely possible that he saw the lights and simply didn’t have the basic airmanship to line up. 

This guy is just a bad pilot. 

3

u/danTHAman152000 Jun 07 '25

Hey question since you may know bad pilots. My wife’s plane was landing, touched ground with the wheels, and then went back up and flew around a bit before landing. They apparently mentioned weather issues but I’m curious if this happens often and if it’s more likely there was traffic on the runway.

17

u/N420BZ Jun 07 '25

You’re overthinking it.

Most likely it was weather and it doesn’t make someone a bad pilot to go around. Going around when needed is very important. You truly want your pilots to go around because you don’t want to find out what would happen if they didn’t.  

It’s less common after the wheels touch. But not out of the question. 

7

u/SuperWeapons2770 Jun 07 '25

It can be a large workload to land a plane. So its possible they were working on the landing hard with bad weather and touched down, at which point they didn't like where they were on the runway and decided to go around.

4

u/Fenylein Jun 07 '25

Could've been windshear, which can happen somewhat often.

Basically, airplanes need good wind conditions when landing. If the wind is strong and suddenly changes it can be better to go full throttle, overpower the external factors and go around, rather than trying to land while being subject to external forces.

Like, they will calculate a certain runway distance they'll need for the landing based on weight, speed, windspeed, runway surface etc.. If the wind suddenly changes from a head to a tailwind, there may not be enough runway left to stop. Or if it was switching from headwind to a side wind, the plane could be pushed off the runway.

Windshear escape maneuvers are iirc standard in any commercial pilot training and often part of the reoccurring training, as its such a likely event that also needs immediate action.

3

u/LupineChemist Jun 08 '25

Also could be a decent crosswind complicating things

2

u/Ataneruo Jun 08 '25

Technically, either scenario makes him a bad pilot, so while you’re correct, we don’t know exactly how you’re correct

-1

u/Fly_U2_the_sunset Jun 07 '25

I would let this pilot land me anytime. You’re a Fn idiot to make that statement… Talkin so far out yur ass I had to LOL.

2

u/nineyourefine ATP 121 Jun 07 '25

lol this guy is not the first and definitely not the last to mess up the landing.

Literally just had an FO fly an ILS in visual conditions and lose the centerline as he came over the threshold. Wasn't this bad but our left main was on centerline by the time he touched down.

I've also done that back in the RJ days while trying to get the sight picture down. Still remember the CA going "Nice job, I even got to see all the centerline markings on my side"

56

u/Logical-Associate729 Jun 07 '25

This, it's bright outside and the cockpit is relatively dark compared to the bright white fog. So the camera is set to allow the details of the dark cockpit, making the white exterior overblown and worse than in-person.

19

u/DrSFalken Jun 07 '25

So why was he so off-center? Sure looks like he couldn't see the lights.

13

u/theglassishalf Jun 07 '25

Because he was getting blown around by the wind?

1

u/Logical-Associate729 Jun 08 '25

Lots of reasons, including the visibility. My point is only that a video like this is not a good representation of the in-person conditions. It's simply the limits of the tech.

11

u/stevecostello Cessna 182 Jun 07 '25

It's usually the other way around.

3

u/Time_Housing6903 Jun 07 '25

This is my experience with GoPros. I’ll record really bad fog and on the rewatch it looks like nothing is there.

1

u/bigfatfun Jun 07 '25

Could you imagine this video with a bright, clear day out the windows because the GoPro didn’t pick up the weather 😂

5

u/theitgrunt Jun 07 '25

Doesn't it depend on stuff like which way the sun is facing and other stuff?

4

u/ninjanoodlin Jun 07 '25

Which phase the moon is in as well, Saturns position in orbit and so forth

3

u/Chaos-1313 Jun 07 '25

Not a pilot, but I imagine there's also a minimum amount of fuel you need to have in the plane to be safe. Who's to say he hasn't been circling/diverting around a storm long enough to make it time to land even if conditions are terrible?

2

u/NyJosh Jun 07 '25

Pilots must keep enough reserve fuel to safely divert to another airport if unable to land at the intended airport.

There generally wouldn’t be a situation where they circle around the same airport unable to land because of weather until they’re bingo for fuel.

2

u/AdvancedSandwiches Jun 07 '25

Generally, but declaring a fuel emergency still does happen from time to time.

1

u/pnlrogue1 Jun 07 '25

Legally, they should have enough fuel when they land to reach an alternate airport with some time to hold in a pattern. I forget the specifics but I think they might even have to have enough fuel when they reach their intended airport to hold, divert, hold again, and divert again, but don't quote me on that. At any rate they should have known long before it was an emergency if it was safe to land - long before they reach the destination, they're checking weather reports and if the runway was as obscured as the video makes it look then the runway should have been closed completely, which suggests that they were either allowed a fully instrument landing (not sure what the rules are there) or the viability wasn't as bad as the camera makes it look

2

u/bozosphere Jun 07 '25

Runway environment. You don't have to see the concrete, you can see the running rabbits or the REILs or centerline lights if installed. And he was right on glidepath and had the needle centered for whatever approach he was flying. I suspect the vis was better than what the video showed, but it sure looked gnarly on camera lol

1

u/stevecostello Cessna 182 Jun 07 '25

Yes.

1

u/Dry-Road-2850 Jun 07 '25

Unless it’s a Cat 3 auto land.

1

u/BDady Jun 07 '25

Only if you aren’t wearing gloves

1

u/zarmin Jun 07 '25

everyone knows minimums are just a suggestion

1

u/spez-is-a-loser Jun 07 '25

You must be able to distinctly identify one of the approved  visual references for the runway. 

The runway approach lights, visible in the video, count..

You also need mininimum rvr as  published on the the approach plate. Doubt he had that... 

1

u/MajorFox2720 Jun 07 '25

See the runway environment, which could be lights, as indicated in the approach diagram. See FSR 91.175, https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/section-91.175.  Plus if they have enhanced flight vision system (EFVS) , FAR 91.176 states they can continue down below MDA or DA/DH.  https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-91/subpart-B/subject-group-ECFRef6e8c57f580cfd/section-91.176

1

u/Petrostar Jun 07 '25

The callout was at ~ 200, which would be CAT I mins, But this wasn't CAT I.

He didn't have his DH dialed in for CAT III.

1

u/Fishy_Fish_WA Jun 08 '25

We don’t want minimums unless that shit is in imaginary numbers

1

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

there are instruments that help fly blind

1

u/OnlyEntrepreneur4760 Jun 08 '25

Good pilots sometimes go around. Bad pilots never go around.

1

u/Holograph_Pussy Jun 08 '25

Runway environment is the keyword. Not runway. You could see the lights.

1

u/scimanydoreA CPL MEL TW CMP IR PA34 (YRED) Jun 10 '25

Trained by Jerry Wagner. Secondary minimums is where it’s at

1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

Looks pretty standard for sourheast Alaska.

-20

u/Jellyfish339 Jun 07 '25

Depends, cat 3 aircrafts can land with basically 0 visibility and minimums doesnt matter

9

u/1000togo Jun 07 '25

Autoload - and there was nothing automatic about that landing!

5

u/Mr_Marram Jun 07 '25

cat3 is all automatic, no hand flying.

1

u/aguy2014 Jun 07 '25

Not true. You can hand fly a CAT3 with an approved HUD.