Dangerous approach
-
-
-
Most small local/county airports in this country have runways that are around 5,000 feet long, which is long enough to accommodate most small private jets.
In the smaller airports you might have a runway length of around 3,000 feet.
That runway at Saint Bart's is 2119 feet.
The short answer to your question is that the guy made a stupid mistake. He was probably not used to landing on a runway that short and he probably didn't bother calculating the landing performance of his plane on that runway.
Those white rectangles on the runway are called aim points - they give you something to aim at. The exact configuration of the markings depend on runway length.
Typically the aim point is 1,000 feet from the end of the runway. This runway is only 2,119 feet long, so the aim points appear to be closer to the runway end. This could have confused the pilot.
The 4 stripes at the ends of the runway indicate that it is 60 feet wide.
-
Most small local/county airports in this country have runways that are around 5,000 feet long, which is long enough to accommodate most small private jets.
In the smaller airports you might have a runway length of around 3,000 feet.
That runway at Saint Bart's is 2119 feet.
The short answer to your question is that the guy made a stupid mistake. He was probably not used to landing on a runway that short and he probably didn't bother calculating the landing performance of his plane on that runway.
Those white rectangles on the runway are called aim points - they give you something to aim at. The exact configuration of the markings depend on runway length.
Typically the aim point is 1,000 feet from the end of the runway. This runway is only 2,119 feet long, so the aim points appear to be closer to the runway end. This could have confused the pilot.
The 4 stripes at the ends of the runway indicate that it is 60 feet wide.
@Copper said in Dangerous approach:
Those white rectangles on the runway are called aim points - they give you something to aim at. The exact configuration of the markings depend on runway length.
Typically the aim point is 1,000 feet from the end of the runway. This runway is only 2,119 feet long, so the aim points appear to be closer to the runway end. This could have confused the pilot.
I mean, he almost landed on the white rectangles exactly. Just the wrong ones.
