Report on aviation incident during approach to Gardermoen airport, Norway, on 22 January 1978 with Convair 990 Coronado, EC-BTE
Aviation report 1978/04
The incident occurred during a charter flight from Las Palmas to Gardermoen. Inbound Gardermoen the aircraft was given vectors for an ILS back course approach to runway 01. Established at FL 050 the crew was informed by ATC that the back course was 5 nm ahead. The crew misunderstood the information, believed they were 5 nm from the runway, and started descent from FL 050. Due to the wrong frequency being selected, the crew did not receive any DME information from Gardermoen. Just over 2 minutes later ATC asked the crew to confirm that they were still at FL 050. The crew replied negative, and the radar controller activated an automatic altitude reader that indicated that the aircraft was at 1,400 ft. The crew was immediately told to climb to 3,500 ft, which was the minimum sector altitude.
Published 03.05.1978
Facts
| Location | Follo, Norway |
| Occurrence date | 22.01.1978 |
| Aircraft | Convair 990 Coronado |
| Operator | Spantax |
| Registration | EC-BTE |
| Meteorological conditions | IMC |
| County | Akershus |
| Type of occurrence | Incident |
| Type of operation | Commercial, other |
| Category of operation | Heavy, aeroplane (> 10 000kg) |
| Aircraft category | Landplane, Multi-engine, Turbofan/Turbojet |
| FIR/AOR | ENOS (Oslo ATCC) |