AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2013 - 62

THE FLIGHT. The Beech Baron 58 and pilot had been
chartered on March 30, 2011, to fly a passenger from
Winston-Salem to Wilmington, North Carolina, and
back at the end of the day. The pilot’s morning started
early with an Internet weather query around 4:30 a.m.
Eastern time. The Baron arrived at Winston-Salem at
7:39 a.m. from the charter company’s home base in
nearby Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. The pilot and
passenger departed about 8:40 a.m.
The return IFR flight from Wilmington started
around 4:20 p.m. after the pilot checked the weather
several times. She asked a fellow company pilot to help
her find a legal alternate. The flight path lay between
two large weather systems with moderate rain and
thunderstorms to the east; there were low ceilings and
visibilities on the western portion of the route. The
weather was hovering around landing minimums for
much of the day in Winston-Salem. The forecast called
for the possibility of moderate or greater turbulence and
wind shear near 3,000 feet over the area.
Arriving in the Winston-Salem area the pilot contacted Greensboro Approach at 5:04 p.m. The controller
advised that the Winston-Salem visibilities were varying between three-quarters and one mile and the
ceiling was overcast at 100 feet. This was below landing minimums and, according to FAR Part 135 (air
taxi regulations), pilots are prohibited from beginning the approach. At 5:08 p.m. the pilot requested
and was cleared into holding at a nearby intersection to consider the options and she asked to be
notified if the weather improved. There was some
discussion about diverting to other airports 30 to
40 miles from Winston-Salem, where the ceilings
were above 300 feet, but the pilot declined and
the flight entered holding at 5:25 p.m.

62 | AOPA PILOT June 2013

Over at Greensboro, about 13 miles to the east,
the weather also was low, but flights were landing on
Runway 5L. Visibility was varying between one quarter and one half mile with a cloud base report of about
50 feet. At 5:34 p.m., the pilot contacted Greensboro
Approach and said that Greensboro would be an acceptable alternative if the weather conditions were “good.”
The controller issued radar vectors to Greensboro.
At 5:35 p.m., the pilot was advised that the ceiling
at Greensboro was overcast at 100 feet, surface winds
northeast at 5 knots, and tower visibility at the time
was running about one-quarter mile, to which the
pilot responded, “That’s not going to help much.” Two
minutes later, at 5:37, the controller asked the pilot her
intentions. The pilot responded that if no other aircraft
were arriving at Greensboro, she would return to the
previous holding pattern. The controller responded,
“Everybody’s getting into Greensboro, nobody’s gone
around yet.” The pilot replied, “Alright, let’s do it.” The
Baron was provided vectors for the ILS approach to
Runway 5L at Greensboro.
At 5:40 p.m. the flight was cleared down to 3,000
feet and vectored to intercept the localizer. The aircraft
passed through the localizer from the northwest one
minute later and then reintercepted the course from
the southeast. The controller offered assistance but the
pilot declined. After becoming established on the localizer and cleared for the approach, the Baron descended
to the published minimums of 2,500 feet for the intermediate segment of the approach. The tower advised
that the Runway 5L runway visual range (RVR) was
4,000 feet and that the Baron was number two to land
behind an Embraer 145 on a one-mile final. Published
landing minimums for Runway 5L included a decision altitude of 200 feet and a minimum RVR of 1,800.
Because visibility is considered controlling, it was legal
to begin the approach.
Things began to unravel here. According to the
NTSB report, “At 5:44:33 p.m. about 0.5 nautical miles
from the final approach fix, the airplane began descending from 2,500 feet, and crossed the fix about
200 feet below the published intercept altitude…over the course of about 2 minutes,
the airplane descended to 1,300 feet, and
remained below the glideslope for the final
8 nautical miles of the approach.” The Baron
descended to only 400 feet agl while still
three miles from the runway threshold. At
5:45:42 p.m. the flight began to climb, just
as the tower controller issued a low altitude
alert. The pilot responded, “We’re going
around.”

AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2013

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