Dassault Chief Test Pilot Says 5.5 glideslope makes jets land too fast at London City Airport

So now we even have an aircraft manufacturer stating that the 5.5degree glideslope (the degree of descent to approach the runway) at LCA would cause "most jet aircraft to arrive over the runway too fast to land".

A bit like the BAE146 flight on Friday 13th February perhaps, and the one a week before, and the ones prior to that too? But they do land, they just tend to burst tires or sustain nose wheel damage.

Dassault's chief test pilot Philippe Deleume goes on to say that " Flying into City requires precision and stability in the handling and speed of the aircraft". He also goes on to say that LCA is "one of the world's most challenging airports".

Perhaps Philippes' knowledge and experience could be shared with the CAA over LCA's suitability for large jet planes, London would be a safer place for it in our opinion.

So Dassault chief test pilot confirms what we already know from the incidents at LCA but which the CAA seem blind to for now, but for how long we wonder?

These comments were made as the Falcon 7x gets approval to operate from London City Airport.

London City Airport - A History of Incidents

FTF is pleased to hear that nobody was seriously hurt in last nights incident at London City Airport, however the incident yet again raises serious safety concerns.

Residents have raised concerns over the safety of operations for some time now, to the airport, the Civil Aviation Authority and LB Newham.

Last nights incident was the 13th incident in less than 8 years, clearly there may be more that we are not aware of. In addition there have been more than 9 near misses in the sky in the past 5 years from flights leaving and arriving at London City Airport.

We also see aviation workers stating online that London City Airport is so overcrowded with it's current level of flights, but that the airport will just keep cramming in more flights until something bad happens.

• 13 Feb 09 - BA nose wheel - hard landing


• 5 Feb 09- BA nose wheel - hard landing?


• 31 Oct 08 - BA - technical malfunction on take off - emergency landing


• March 2008 - BWA found guilty at Stratford Magistrates for operating at London City Airport without AOC validation, not just once, but for months.


• 2008 - Buried metal in runway which has caused a variety of incidents over a period of years (which LCA managed to ignore) is finally investigated and LCA are given 6 actions to carry out by the AIB.


• August 2007 Swiss Air Jet - hard landing - so badly damaged it had to be floated off by barge.
  
• February 2007 - Air France - tyres burst on heavy landing
  

and here's the link to the rest.