After an unstable approach in heavy rain and marginal visual flight conditions to Australia’s Lord Howe Island Airport, the pilot of an Eastern Air Link Raytheon Super King Air B200 thought the airplane was aligned with the runway centerline. Instead, it landed on the strip1 on the left side of Runway 10, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says.
Neither the pilot nor any of the six passengers was injured in the Feb. 18, 2022, serious incident, and the airplane was not damaged. A runway edge light was broken, however, and aircraft tire marks showed that the airplane had touched down on the runway strip, with the right main landing gear about 2 m (7 ft) from the edge, and then quickly moved onto Runway 10.
In its final report on the incident, the ATSB said that although the pilot began the visual approach with “the required visual cues, it was highly unlikely that the required visual contact with the runway was retained throughout the approach.<...
