Visual approaches have been in the news a lot recently. On July 6, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 hit a seawall short of San Francisco’s Runway 28L and crashed. The flight had been cleared for a visual approach to Runway 28L. The ILS was out, but the PAPI was in service, so there was some vertical guidance.
Later that same month, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 landed nose-wheel first on a visual approach at La Guardia. The nose gear crumpled beneath their feet, making the B-737 far more difficult to steer.
The Vis
Key Takeaways:
- Visual approaches are IFR procedures conducted in VMC, often underestimated and carrying significant risk, accounting for 30% of approach-and-landing accidents (70% at night) due to insufficient training and misconceptions.
- Once cleared for a visual approach, the pilot assumes responsibility for navigation, obstacle avoidance, and maintaining VMC, while the underlying IFR clearance remains active unless explicitly cancelled.
- Safety is paramount, requiring pilots to achieve a stable approach by 500 feet AGL—meaning correct configuration, alignment, airspeed, and descent rate—with an immediate go-around if stability is lost.
- Effective planning, early weather assessment, anticipating wind effects, and utilizing navaids for situational awareness (e.g., for an associated instrument approach) are crucial for executing safe and precise visual approaches.
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