ACR LTT MADE CONTACT APCH INTO PUW WITHOUT REQUESTING LATEST WX FROM COMPANY AT PUW. ACI OBSERVING.

1988-07 · NASA ASRS report 90936

Date: 1988-07 · Aircraft: Light Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turboprop Eng · Phase: approach

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far

Synopsis

ACR LTT MADE CONTACT APCH INTO PUW WITHOUT REQUESTING LATEST WX FROM COMPANY AT PUW. ACI OBSERVING.

Narrative

THERE IS SOME QUESTION ABOUT STARTING THE APCH TO PUW W/O THE LATEST WX FROM THE PUW RPTING FAC (IN THIS CASE IT IS OUR OWN COMPANY). I HAD A HARD COPY PRINTOUT WITH THE LATEST ISSUED AT THE TIME OF DEP FROM SPOKANE. ON CONTACTING PUW OPS (COMPANY) INBND MY NEW F/O ONLY RECEIVED A WIND AND ALTIMETER READING. HE DID NOT REQUEST VIS AND CEILINGS. I ALSO FAILED TO QUESTION. I WAS ALSO ANTICIPATING A CONTACT APCH AS I WAS BELOW THE CLOUDS IN LIGHT RAIN CONDITIONS WITH GOOD GND CONTACT. WITH AN FAA ROUTE CHK AIRMAN ONBOARD AND OBSERVING; AN INSTRUMENT APCH WAS STARTED INTO PUW. THE APCH (VOR RWY 5); APPROVED BY SEA ATC; WAS CHANGED TO A CONTACT APCH PASSING THE VOR OUTBND TO AID IN AN ONTIME ARR. UNICOM FREQ WAS BEING MONITORED AND ON LEAVING ATC FREQ COMPANY REMOTE ACFT WATCH RADIO WAS AGAIN SELECTED. A STRAIGHT IN LNDG TO RWY 5 HAD BEEN BRIEFED; BUT A CIRCLING LEFT HAND PATTERN TO RWY 23 WAS ALSO DISCUSSED 3 MI OUT. COMPANY REMOTE RPTED A LIGHT SINGLE ENG ACFT PASSING N TO S OVER THE FIELD AND ENTERING A LEFT DOWNWIND FOR RWY 23. WITH THE RWY JUST COMING INTO VIEW; THE APCH TO RWY 5 WAS STOPPED IN FAVOR OF A LEFT DOWNWIND TO RWY 23. REMAINING AT ABOUT 4000' (1500' AGL) AND ON A WIDE DOWNWIND; COMPANY RADIO RPTED THE SMA ON A CLOSE IN PATTERN. I SAW THE ACFT ON A SHORT FINAL AS WE TURNED BASE FOR A NORMAL LNDG (PART 91 OPS DO NOT REQUIRE A REMOTE RADIO; BUT WE OPERATE BOTH PART 91 AND 121 OPS INTO PUW AND STATION PERSONNEL WORK HARD AT PROVIDING IT FOR ALL COMPANY ACFT.) THE FLT DEPARTED PUW WITH THE FAA STILL ONBOARD. THE FAA OBSERVER SPOKE TO ME (AND NOT ME F/O) ON LEAVING THE ACFT IN LEWISTON ABOUT STARTING AN APCH W/O THE LATEST WX. I SAW NO WRITTEN RPT NOR SIGNED ANYTHING. I DID RECEIVE A PHONE CALL FROM MY CHIEF PLT AS IT APPEARS SOME SORT OF (FOR YOUR INTEREST ONLY) RPT WAS FORWARDED TO THE CHIEF FFA OFFICER OVERSEEING OUR OPS. I WAS NOT CONCERNED WITH STARTING THE APCH AND FELT I HAD SUFFICIENT INFO. THE FAA MAY HAVE NOT; BUT STILL ALLOWED THE APCH TO CONTINUE AND TO DEPART FOR THE NEXT DEST. I WAS ASKED BY MY CHIEF PLT TO SUBMIT THIS NASA RPT.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.