WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
If you are planning on flying on any commercial or private aircraft to any destination
always ask/question what the weather conditions will be on arrival. If your destination's
weather is forecasted to be bad enough to impose INSTRUMENT FLIGHT REGULATIONS
(rules) be followed during approach and landing at the designation airport: DO NOT GO and live to fly another day. I believe The National Transportation Safety Board suggested at a recent public hearing that the flight crew's skill level was not adequate for the weather conditions at Buffalo, NY at the time of Colgan Air Bombardier's arrival. They cannot justify that decision. It is very important to remember comments made by a member of the board who described there were two maneuvers by the aircraft during approach to landing that were troubling; the first was a violent climbing turn to the right, followed by a severe nose down turn to the left. That description was my clue as to the cause of the accident. It was failure of the authority responsible for traffic control to insure the integrity of the instrument landing system(ILS) and airfield ground traffic. For what ever reason; if a vehicle checking for icing on various taxi ways, or spreading deicing material crossed the approach end of the ILS runway from left to right; the violent maneuvers of Continental Connection Flight 3407 was the result. Impossible to overcome unless the pilot is aware of the traffic and alert for the possible interference and deflection (bending) of the ILS signals.
How do I know; BECAUSE IT HAPPENED TO ME.
It was approximately June-July 1955 I was assigned as Chief of Air Force Flight Test and Acceptance Operations when the first Boeing B-47 six jet bomber built by Douglas Aircraft Company with the capability of coupling the auto pilot with the ILS system was delivered to the Air Force for acceptance. The acceptance flight was on a day when the wind in advance of a cold front was out of the north and landing was on the 10,000 ft N-S runway. Returning to the airport following normal flight test of primary aircraft systems I received approval for a ILS ( Instrument Landing System) approach during landing.
Immediately after turning on final to the runway I coupled the ILS signal with the autopilot and with my left hand on the control column yoke emergency cutoff switch and my right hand griping the throttles I proceeded with the approach. When we were approximately 1/4 mile from the end of the runway at approximately 600-700ft altitude, I notice a large tanker truck enter a gate on the west(left) side of the runway on to a perimeter road that crossed approximately 100 ft south of the runway from west to east heading to the back of a mile long main assembly plant building. I watched that tanker truck to be sure it would be clear of my approach path before I reached the runway and just before it looked to be entering my approach path when BAM it hit the ILS signal and the deflection of the signal caused that B-47 to start a maneuver like it was entering a snap roll to the right and even though I was ready and immediately hit the autopilot kill switch and jammed full throttle my left wing tip was 10-15 degrees above and the nose level with the horizon. Had I not been doing flight testing I would not be writing this. In post
flight meetings it was agreed a hotline would be established between ATC control tower and Douglas security Gate.
Following are other unsolved accidents where, in my analysis, the cause was a deflection
(bending) of the ILS signal.
First was the accident of the special flight carrying President Clinton's Secretary of Commerce that flew into a mountain in Yugoslavia while on an ILS approach to a major airport. No cause was found during the special investigation. The Investigating Team made note that the ILS was functioning normal and a maintenance TRUCK was parked near the TRANSMITTER. That truck deflected (bent) the ILS directional signal enough that it directed the pilot into the mountain. Since the NTSB knows nothing of the signal deflection large metal objects cause in the ILS signal, it is always PILOT ERROR.
Another major accident was the Navy Hercules C-130 flying a course to intercept the ILS directional beam flew diectly into a mountain in Afganistan. Why?? It is my opinion, that the Air Base was under a complete black out and the pilot was following a standard pattern to be picked up by radar approach control for landing. Since the airbase was in a combat zone there had to be armored vehicles stationed on perimeter security patrol. Any vehicle stopped just short of the landing approach end of the runway would be enough to deflect (bend)the ILS directional signal. The pilot had no warning, no chance to avoid the mountain. Another PILOT ERROR accident.
The amount of deflection can cause minor incidents also. There was a non fatal accident in Little Rock where the aircraft shortly after touch down ran over runway lights and off the side of the runway. That could have been caused by a 2 or 3 degree bend off centerline of the directional beam. PILOT ERROR???
Another accident was in Chicago at the Midway airport when the aircraft touched down long
on the runway and and could not stop before going off the runway. If the localizer beam is bent up by a large truck, like a moving van parked directly in line with the runway, the aircraft will come down at a steeper angle and land long. With poor braking conditions on the runway stopping before going thru the boundry fence would be impossible. PILOT ERROR???