Deadly Advice:
“What’s that Alpha-Foxtrot? Bad weather blown you off course on your approach run? No problem, take her up to 4,000 feet, hang a left… KA-BOOM!! Oh! Did I say left? I meant right…”
Control tower instructions for a ‘missed approach turn’ at the Kruger Mpumalanga Airport will have planes playing ‘chicken’ with a nearby mountain peak.
”…turn left after the runway and ascend to 4 000 feet, which sends the aircraft straight in the direction - to use American flying lingo - of around 4 700 feet (at the highest point) of “cumulo-granite”, a mountain.”
“The CAA has attempted to correct the problem, issuing new instruction sheets containing the correct ground station designation of PK and instructing pilots to maintain a safer height of 4 500 feet. This is still 200 feet lower than the mountain’s apex.”
I sure hope they haven’t loused up the instructions and Johannesburg International Airport - I’m supposed to be landing there in March.
