Safety
Flight Path Management: Old Issue, New Incident
The crew was too low an a visual approach but later landed safely on an instrument approach.

During a March 8, 2013 visual approach that nearly became a controlled flight into terrain statistic, the captain of the Qantas Airways A330 assessed the aircraft’s flight path using invalid glideslope indications, resulting incorrectly that the aircraft high on the approach, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s (ATSB) final report. Soon after being cleared for the approach and descending through 3,000 feet, the captain set 1,000 feet in the autoflight system and a 180-knot target speed with the landing gear down. The descent was continued in autoflight open descent mode and reached a maximum of 2,200 fpm.


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