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Rules One Through Ten... (March 99)
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The flight crew of a Turbo Commander rediscovered a basic flying rule while trying to troubleshoot a problem on an IFR approach over mountainous terrain. The First Officer (the flying pilot) reports:
- After passing the VOR, we were descended to 10,000 feet and given a vector towards the final approach...We were traveling at approximately 230 knots. During this process the directional gyro on my side of the cockpit failed and the Captain was trying to diagnose the problem. At about this time, we were advised to descend and maintain 3,800 feet, which is the MVA [Minimum Vectoring Altitude] for that sector. Our descent was delayed somewhat so we were descending fairly rapidly while trying to diagnose the directional gyro problem and join the localizer. Unfortunately, I failed to arrest the descent at 3,800 feet, and we were called by the Tower upon reaching approximately 3,300 feet [and] advised that the Tower was receiving a low altitude alert. We were advised to climb immediately, which we did....
- I am constantly preaching to everyone that rules 1 through 10 are "fly the airplane first," and I simply failed to follow my own rules. I should have...allowed the Captain to work out the problems. Fortunately, [this airport] is an excellent ATC facility. They quickly caught our altitude and gave us an immediate climb...Our rate of descent was greater than 2,500 feet per minute which allowed for very little deviation time.
Flight crew distraction is a factor in many accidents. Our reporter's analysis is accurate. In addition, pilots must be trained to recognize when they are rushed, distracted, and susceptible to error. |
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