[William May]

Supposedly there was very heavy fog. Also, it was reported that the runway lights were NOT working at the time.

[Hogmann]

[nearestexit]

Blancolirio has many supposed "facts" incorrect. Also, the runway lights were working. Some of the approach lights, which are BEFORE the runway and form a "line" "pointing" the plane TO the runway, were not working. However, this is still important, as one often might not have the runway in sight in bad weather but WOULD have the approach lights in sight and be able to follow them TO the runway.

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by Hogmann ↗

That video in Kellyhounds post of the plane flying in the fog is not from this incident

deleted

[Hogmann]

Originally Posted by nearestexit ↗

Blancolirio has many supposed "facts" incorrect. Also, the runway lights were working. Some of the approach lights, which are BEFORE the runway and form a "line" "pointing" the plane TO the runway, were not working. However, this is still important, as one often might not have the runway in sight in bad weather but WOULD have the approach lights in sight and be able to follow them TO the runway.

LThere is the issue with whether or not this citation can fly the Approach at all because there's only cat b Minima which sounds like the citation can fly cat b minima and I think I saw that corrected in the comments somewhere. But the pilot's flying way too fast he's even flying too fast for cat D minimum when he crosses the Final Approach. 180 knots is 40 knots above maximum speed for this approach so he's terribly unstable in his speed which he's trying to correct all the way down to the runway which probably is what led him to dipping below the glide slope.

I know a lot has been made about the approach lights or Runway lights maybe working or maybe not working but it seems like a red herring to me. He pretty clearly dipped below Glide slope quite a ways away from the runway so in the bad weather he wouldn't have been able to see the lights anyway even if they were working.

After flying all through the night across the country I'm sure everybody just wants to get home but now you're faced with the hardest part of the flight it's no time to rush into it especially when the weather is that bad. Even though there was no weather reporting at that airport and the nearest airport was below minimums I don't have a problem with him attempting the approach as long as you do it in a stable Manner and adhere to the minimum. But the fact he was considering other small airports for his diversion as opposed to San Diego makes me wonder if he really grasped the gravity of the situation.
He's also really chatty on the radio which is an "abnormal reaction" (faa lingo) to stress.

[Mr.NoCredit]

It was the Devil’s plane. 666 Delta Sierra

[Hogmann]

Originally Posted by Mr.NoCredit ↗

It was the Devil’s plane. 666 Delta Sierra

And one of the passengers was in a Christian metalcore band.
Whatever the fuck that kind of music is

[Mr.NoCredit]

Originally Posted by Hogmann ↗

And one of the passengers was in a Christian metalcore band.
Whatever the fuck that kind of music is

Sometimes irony is quite interesting at times.

[William May]

They just confirmed that the runway lights were inoperative. On the Blancolirio post, you can hear him clicking to turn the lights on. (Many small airports have runway lights, but they only come on when the pilot sets his radio to a particular frequency, and then triggers his mic. This signal turns on the runway lights automatically.) In the Blancolirio post, you can hear him do that TWICE, but of course, no results, because the runway lights were not working.
So if he was at the end of final approach, and tried to turn the runway lights on, and they did not work, then he is flying into a black hole. I'm sure he though "FUCK!" when nothing happened. My reaction would have been to immediately climb, and head somewhere else. If you watch the Blancolirio post, he had about 5 different things stack up against him, removing his options and boxing him into a corner.

[PhognaBologna]

Got his pilots license from Phoenix University