B757 flight crew reports landing at LAX without landing clearance. Crew believes that recent changes to procedures without adequate training were a factor.

2011-11 · NASA ASRS report 978713

Date: 2011-11 · Aircraft: B757-200 · Phase: landing

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-landing-without-clearance

Synopsis

B757 flight crew reports landing at LAX without landing clearance. Crew believes that recent changes to procedures without adequate training were a factor.

Narrative

While attempting to comply with the new procedures; I failed to verify that we had a landing clearance and proceeded to land while on approach frequency. The First Officer and I had been discussing the new procedures and call outs in depth before starting the arrival. After briefing the arrival for Runway 25L we were assigned Runway 24R. We then briefed that. The entire approach and landing were accomplished normally. We discovered that we were still on approach after clearing Runway 24R. We did not complete the new 1000 foot call properly. We got the missed approach altitude set but forgot to check for the landing clearance. In my opinion; the missed approach altitude should be set well before 1000 ft or while executing the missed approach. It is treated as if setting the missed approach altitude is of more importance than the landing clearance. More training on the procedures via simulator training or videos of crews properly performing them would be a big improvement. This event causes me to seriously question the effectiveness of this read then go do training program. I would like to see at least a video of pilots experienced with these procedures actually perform them. I can not help but feel that something slipped through our training program. We have no experienced pilots in these procedures. Its almost the blind leading the blind.

Second reporter narrative

While flying the Visual Approach to Runway 24R LAX; and trying to comply with the new approach procedures; we forgot to verify that we had a landing clearance and landed on Runway 24R while still tuned to the approach frequency. That verbal confirmation has been omitted in the new procedures. In my opinion that verbalization of the landing clearance is vital to a safe operation and should not have been removed. The training is inadequate for the new procedures. There is no certainty of them on the line. I feel we need to either watch a video of a flight where the proper technique is used and/or practice in a simulator to clarify questions that come up daily.

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

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