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Weather Analysis for Delta Flight 1889. Pilots need WX in the cockpit.
Scott Dennstaedt, ForeFlight's weather scientist, analyzes the weather affecting Delta flight 1889. (blog.foreflight.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Flight tracks: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1889/history/20150807/2130Z/KBOS/KSLC
(@ preach1 ATL-LIT) I wonder if that was the night we were flying back to MEM from MSP? The storms had passed through MSP before Dinner, but the line was still solid to nearly DAL. We flew basically S, while the line moved east. We made a few quick turns east to look for holes. I finally decided to wait it out and get some more fuel in the old Kansas City river front airport! By the time we fueled, refiled and re-dispatched, we had an uneventful return to MEM and we still made the sort! ;-) Of course, I was a young '27 Capt then, but I already had a healthy respect thunderstorms growing up in the mid-west. Normal ops was to avoid a storm by at least 20 miles, back then. My rule was a mile for each thousand feet of the storms height! Hard to estimate that at night, so I just flew so far away I couldn't see the lightening!! :+P I WISH! lol! I was always amazed to see passenger flights between me an the CB's, even when I didn't use my 40 mile rule!!
There are a few cowboys floating around that will do stupid stuff like that at all airlines. But I disagree that there is any push to go by management at any airline. The captain has the ultimate go no go call and I have used that many times with no feedback or questions. Delta for one will support any decision a captain makes regarding safety of flight including canceling, diverting, or waiting out weather. I would suspect the corporate guys have more pressure to launch due to the high net worth passengers they fly.
Thanks, nice to hear an update from an active pilot. Most all of my class is now retired. We were old to start with. LOL.
Griff, we still have the TP system and there were TP's out for that area. At NWA, the TP uplink to the aircraft was automatic in World Flight. After the merger with Delta, its up to the dispatcher to send the TP to the crew. That is the weak link. If dispatch is busy, fast updating TP's might get missed. Has happened to me on several occasions. We can request them through ACCARS by region or number and I always do that. Sad thing is most RD's don't fully understand the TP system like us former NWA pilots. I'll bet there will be some dialog about putting a higher priority on TP training during CQ!
Other point to mention is all Delta jets have WiFi and we can access Deltanet on our company Surface tablets. Although we're not supposed to use them for that purpose, I will when situations like this are developing. Delta meterology is a awsome resourse with everything any GA pilot has access to and our in house weather guys.
Other point to mention is all Delta jets have WiFi and we can access Deltanet on our company Surface tablets. Although we're not supposed to use them for that purpose, I will when situations like this are developing. Delta meterology is a awsome resourse with everything any GA pilot has access to and our in house weather guys.
The PIC makes the final call for his own life and career by pushing it to the limit with of course the load of human cargo sitting behind him. Just because you tweak yourself cleverly around the crayon colors on your wx radar doesn't mean you are flying as prudently as you can and/or were trained to fly.
The CVR (if available) and the ARTCC tapes ..what was being said about this line of storms both in ground to ground interphone calls....controller to pilot information/avoidance strategies......PIREPS being actively distributed..and finally what was this crew discussing with each other and their own company as they approached this area.
NWA which is now DELTA prided itself to be the world's leader in wx/turbc avoidance routes in this very region..let's hope those professionals can help relook at how Delta is flying up there...
With some trillions of dollars invested in the ATC and weather radar/sat systems and in aircraft instrumentation and performance....having this kind of incident boil down to a single human decision point of "gee that doesn't look too good out there" after having available all the FAA, NWS, DELTA dispatcher, and cockpit resources in terms of radar and years of pilot training and experience with Delta/NWA and potentially with current (reserves) and/or past military training background/experience also factored in.
For all this to narrow down to a single point of failure is an attention getter for everybody to learn AGAIN some lessons. An honest and complete narrative autopsy of this incident would be instructional for EVERYBODY young and old since we have the luxury of not have scores of actual ones.
This should never happen in the United States in a full radar environment....This was not the North Atlantic or the Pacific beyond Adak, Island.
Lot to learn here about ourselves and practices for everybody in the aviation community... We didn't dodge one if we don't pause and look at this with a great deal of interest and concern...
The obliterated front of that jet should be a poster photo for some years to come least we all get a little too casual up there at FL350 or working as controllers or weather support for these pilots and passengers...