Michael_J wrote:
1000’ above the town? Not sure….
No way that was 1000’.
I think we have become a bunch of chickens… or perhaps “saints” or a bit of both I remember when I was a little boy. It was not unusual the airlines suddenly took a “sightseeing tour” along the coast for a little while when the weather was nice. Everybody on board thought that it was just cool.
Of course anyone “serious” about commercial aviation has to say this is completely unacceptable when “feeling the need” to comment on it. I don’t feel a need to comment. I don’t see why anyone would feel that need unless being the chief pilot and pretty much has to make a statement. My comment is just hmm 
LeSving wrote:
It was not unusual the airlines suddenly took a “sightseeing tour” along the coast for a little while when the weather was nice. Everybody on board thought that it was just cool.
Well, I think it was banned by many (most?) airlines as these sort of tours led to some fatal accidents.
@arj1 wrote:
Well, I think it was banned by many (most?) airlines as these sort of tours led to some fatal accidents.
If I have a choice to put the people I love on an airline with loose rules where the pilots can have some fun, or those that follow the procedures strictly, I’ll choose the latter.
Recall the Aeroflot 593 crash – seemed innocuous enough – teenager in the cockpit, what could go wrong?
LeSving wrote:
I think we have become a bunch of chickens… or perhaps “saints” or a bit of both I remember when I was a little boy. It was not unusual the airlines suddenly took a “sightseeing tour” along the coast for a little while when the weather was nice. Everybody on board thought that it was just cool.
I have seen this still happen from time to time. The difference here is that flying at 500 feet above a town is actually not legal. GA pilots are prosecuted for this sort of thing so why should an airline get away with it?
He flew above a runway on an airport.
LeSving wrote:
He flew above a runway on an airport.
Unlikely that the runway was suitable for the aircraft in question – if that matters?
It matters in the context of flying lower than 500 feet agl.
Anyway, IMO this is a matter of company policies and rules. I’m sure Icelandair has clear descriptions of what the job of the captain is, and flying low above the airport on his/hers hometown on a ordinary route to bring passengers from Germany to Iceland is not part of that job. This is nothing more than that.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Unlikely that the runway was suitable for the aircraft in question – if that matters?
Well I remember one of my old instructors who flew SAS 767. One day I was putting fuel on an aircraft at EKRK and suddenly a 767 was in full landing config inbound rwy 21 where it just did a missed approach and flew away. It turned out to be this instructor on a last flight. I am not sure if there were passengers onboard.
