Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Another harrisonfordesque occurrence

Last night (26/05/20) around 21:00 LT, an M-20J, registration OE-DSF, entered the Prague CTR without communicating with ATC, then proceeded to land on a runway closed for maintenance. The pilot did not respond to repeated calls by the tower, nor to light gun signals. Allegedly, the pilot is a 79-year-old German citizen. He is currently in police custody.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

We did have a similar thing happen at EPKK recently – a pilot checked in with Approach and never switched to Tower; did his touch and go and left… I don’t think they are in any kind of custody though.

tmo
EPKP - Kraków, Poland

He probably had comms failure?

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Hence the light signals

And even then you need to stay out of controlled airspace when NORDO. If you already have a clearance to enter then you should look out for that light gun in the circuit.

EBST, Belgium

airways wrote:

And even then you need to stay out of controlled airspace when NORDO.

Good airmanship of course dictates that you do as long as you have an option, but in some cases you have no other choice. At 21:00LT yesterday the sun would already have set in Prague. Are there lighted uncontrolled airports reasonably close? Of course, that’s no excuse for disregarding light signals.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

airways wrote:

Hence the light signals
And even then you need to stay out of controlled airspace when NORDO. If you already have a clearance to enter then you should look out for that light gun in the circuit.

I would expected he complies with tower light signals but have some doubts on “stay out of airspace” (yes I know VFR/IFR lost comms procedures ) just have few doubts on what “stay out of CAS” practically mean at 21:00LT

Was he IFR or VFR? or expected on FPL to Prague or elsewhere? does Czech allow Night VFR flying? or flying after sunset? should he fly back? divert to small uncontrolled in the dark? or fly to big controlled airport like Prague? do patterns waiting to get intercepted by F16s at night and then enter CTR? was he able to set 7600?

Ps: I have been with all electrics off VFR it was at 2pm but my pax went nervous after the 4th lost comm triangle, so I went into CAS buzzed the tower and landed

Edit: A_A beat me to similar answer

Last Edited by Ibra at 27 May 14:10
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

If you’re no radio and have no transponder then I suppose you can technically declare a mayday “in your head” and do whatever you need to do to get down to the ground, controlled airspace or not… Maybe he had some sort of emergency?

EGBJ and Firs Farm, United Kingdom

NicR wrote:

If you’re no radio and have no transponder then I suppose you can technically declare a mayday “in your head” and do whatever you need to do to get down to the ground, controlled airspace or not… Maybe he had some sort of emergency?

An ATC recording has been published, in which the tower repeatedly called him by his call sign, so he probably had a mode S transponder in operation. Had the transponder contact been lost (i.e. primary returns only, but call sign known from prior information), I am sure the ATC would have assumed an emergency. Also, RWY 06/24 was NOTAMed closed, which the pilot should have known. It could have been an emergency, but it does not exempt the pilot from good airmanship.



The words in Czech are the ATCO calling a ground vehicle to drive to RWY 06 where the aircraft had just landed.

Last Edited by Ultranomad at 27 May 16:26
LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic
8 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top