San Francisco [KSFO] Airport For Tower!3D Pro Free Offline
Facunda Ganesh
While you're almost never taught in training how to file IFR to an airport with no instrument approach, pilots do it all the time. If you fly to non-towered airports in rural areas, you'll face this problem all the time. And if you're flying to an unmarked airstrip, did you know you can even file IFR to a lat/long position?
While the crew of United 497 was struggling with smoke in the cockpit and loss of electrical power to the Airbus A-320's instrumentation, ground crews had their hands full, too. The aircraft had just departed New Orleans en route to San Francisco when fire or smoke detection equipment in the cockpit alarmed and smoke began filling the cockpit. The crew immediately requested a vector back to the airport and shortly thereafter declared an emergency. It also requested runway 10/28, New Orleans' longest runway, at 10,080 feet. But the runway was undergoing maintenance and cluttered with numerous vehicles and workers. Despite an urgent request from the tower to clear the runway, it remained obstructed and United 497 landed on the 7001-foot runway 19 instead. Because its steering and braking may have been compromised by the electrical failure, the Airbus departed the runway to one side and came to a stop with the nosewheel mired in mud. All 109 persons aboard evacuated without serious injury. The NTSB reported that one forward slide failed to deploy, but neither the airline nor the safety agency provided any information on the extent of fire damage in the cockpit.
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