I thought everyone spoke English to ATC. I guess Approach and Tower can be local language or perhaps optional of English or local?
Also, if you can’t see past the threshold is that ok to land? Pretty trusting of the tower…
Yeah - it’s legal. As long as you have the required visibility…and that all depends on what the tower is calling it, and/or if there is RVR reporting equipment. As well, for some operators (not sure outside the US), once you are inside the outer marker (typically around 5nm), the weather can do whatever and you can still continue the approach.
I hate to admit that I’ve shot a similar approach into a wall of water and wind earlier in my career. Sometimes you eat the bear…and sometimes…
Edit - and yes, most ATC is in English, but you still hear country specific languages quite often. Flew to Cancun last week and a few airplanes were speaking Spanish with the controller…
BeachAV8R
I bet the captain dictated it was the f/o’s walkaround after that landing.
LOL…no kidding. That’s why I stay inside (in the warm airplane) to move the patient on the stretcher instead of being on the receiving end out in the cold… It always starts to rain like that about 30 seconds before our ambulance shows up…
In my opinion it was unwarranted risk to an aircraft and passengers. Flying into “red” with lightning striking all around, unexpected windshear especially while on final is suicidal. Don’t even mention that FO is goofing around with a camera instead of backing up pilot.
I agree completely…unless there was an even bigger risk (like a low fuel situation) and this was their best shot. I’ve been in weather systems that only gave you once chance, and a short one, and though I’ve been thin on fuel before, I’ve never really been so bad off that I’ve had to declare min fuel or an emergency… I don’t know where the video was shot, but it could be there were some circumstances that made continuing the approach the best worst option.
BeachAV8R
You also have to apply some local knowledge when considering weather. Red doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere in terms of convectivity. In tropical regions rain and lightening are much more intense relative to the violence contained in the storm relative to, say, Kansas. Other than the filming itself, I’d say that crew did nothing wrong.
This is true. I regularly fly to Bermuda and the Caribbean, and you can often see some really, really intense red and mageneta on the radar and basically it is just a wall of water with little to no convective feel to it or turbulence. Tropical type systems generally look worse than they feel…but those fast moving cold front storms, no thanks. Been there, done that, got the bruises on the top of my head…