TiredSoul

If you think it’s a’ight for a 121 crew to not be able to figure out the correct frequency nor figure out the correct time nor read the notams you’ve earned yourself a ticket to Paris.

Mozam

Or, Just Or. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes.

Boatbuilder

I don't know of any pilot that would not announce intentions on CTAF. It's common friggin sense. You've got 150+ souls on board that are YOUR responsibility and you're going to operate anonymously from a non tower airport? Question? How does such a pilot manage the rudder pedals while wearing spurs?

golfandflows

yeah it’s pretty ridiculous. Even most student pilot solos with 20 hrs wouldn’t fk this up

captjns

It's one thing to make a mistake, such as selecting HDG vs NAV on the MCP, when cleared direct to a fix. But not reviewing NOTAMs? A mistake. Really?

Tell that to the personnel working on the closed runway.

joepilot50

You're not going to get an argument from me about it.

Your radio works? Make the darn calls.

If this crew made the conscious decision to not make radio calls over CTAF, then yeah they are in a bag of hurt.

I was simply stating CTAF calls are not required. Boneheaded not to, but not required. And as rick points out, if something happens your decision not to will come under a microscope.

Lets hope this is a case of wrong frequency or some other distraction.

CX500T

Y'all realize there's a fair amount of people who never held a private, and Mil-Comped their Commercial right?

I went through military flight school (Twice, actually) and there is a lot of stuff that might be hammered/taught if doing part 61 PPL/COM at a small uncontrolled field, that they just don't get that much if any exposure to.

Can't speak to 141 schools, and my PPL/COM was done by friends of my dad's in helicopters and the ASEL add on was at a local 61 school. But if there's a place mil only guys are lacking, it's uncontrolled field ops depending on the platform. Did it all the time as a helicopter pilot. NEVER did it in a Jet. Rarely did it in an E-2.

rickair7777

There's a difference bewteen not reviewing NOTAMS, and missing or mis-reading a NOTAM.

But the guy was on tape with center saying he thought the rwy opened at 0545, right?

I think the bigger issue here is the crew (the CA really) may have been attempting to slip through an imaginary seam in time between when the rwy closure ended and the tower opened. Unfortunately that seam doesn't exist, it's one or the other, there's no option for neither. As it happened, Ops was utilizing the last minutes of the closure window for what was presumably a post-construction work rwy inspection.

They obviously thought they were departing uncontrolled NLT 0544, even if they were on the wrong freq you don't just depart anyway if tower doesn't answer the radio. You set the brake, check the radios, and make a phone call.

Why no CTAF comms? Possibly they were broadcasting on the wrong freq. No excuse whatsoever for intentional silence, only reason I can think of for that are extreme laziness or worse a desire to avoid broadcasting anything that would get time-stamped on a tape.

Word to the wise, our airplane clocks these days are GPS-driven and unless you're operating North of the Arctic Circle they will be accurate down to the minute. +/- one minute is about all the slop you'll get away with and that's because ACARS might not update instantly (but it doesn't take three minutes to update).

rickair7777

Even if both were pointy nose types, one of them had been in the airlines for ten-ish years or more. Even if not very familiar with uncontrolled fields, he should have known enough to brush up on it first.

N6279P

That’s what it sounds like. It’s almost like he knew it was closed and took off anyway.