What happened
On 5 August 2020, a Cessna 510 Citation Mustang, registration OE-FNP, was conducting a commercial passenger flight approaching Jersey Airport. While being radar vectored for an ILS approach to Runway 26, the crew received instructions from Jersey Approach stating they were first in the landing sequence and were directed to contact the Tower frequency.
Following the completion of landing checklists and the activation of landing lights, the crew proceeded to land the aircraft. However, the crew failed to establish contact with the Tower frequency and did not receive an explicit landing clearance prior to touchdown. It was only after the aircraft had vacated the runway that the crew realized they were still communicating on the approach frequency and had not spoken to the Tower controller.
The investigation
The investigation established that the Tower controller was aware of the aircraft's approach and was expecting the arrival. There was no other traffic in the immediate vicinity at the time of the incident. The crew reported that they had misinterpreted the ATC notification regarding their position in the sequence as an authorization to land. The commander noted that the crew was not experiencing fatigue, distraction, or workload issues during the approach, but rather a specific failure in communication processing.