After the publication of the report into the Crossair accident at Zurich (Flight International, 2-8 March) one might be led to believe that many of the lessons which have been built up over several decades have yet to be learned.
Accidents are the result of "systems" failures. It is facile to imply that the primary cause of this accident was "pilot error", a phrase which by now should be considered obsolete. There many ingredients which go to make up an accident such as aircraft design, training systems, company culture and air traffic considerations - most of which are entirely outside the direct control of flightcrew.
Years ago the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) nominated certain airports as "Black Star" since they were deficient in basic landing aids such as precision glideslope guidance. The provision of PAR (precision approach radar) on this runway would almost certainly have prevented this accident, but this is a system which has been progressively withdrawn from most civil airports.
Maybe it is now time for the International Federation of Airline Pilot Associations to re-nominate certain airport/approach combinations as "Black Star" to draw attention to these basic deficiencies and/or even to advise their pilots to boycott certain approaches in specific situations.
Robert Taylor Nottingham, UK
Source: Flight International
