ATC Vectors IFR Flight Into California Mountain

Larry Dighera wrote:

Which particular "bog-standard" ATC instructions are you referring to?

"3BW, turn left, a heading of 290, vector to final, descend and maintain 3000."

The pilot seems to have complied with all the instructions he acknowledged
receiving that I'm aware of prior to the handoff to SoCal. At that point it
appears that he lost radio contact with ATC and continued on the last vector he
had received. From the LiveATC recording, SoCal's 290 heading assignment
doesn't appear to have been received by the pilot.

Certainly it wasn't acknowledged.

N133BW is not on the LiveATC recording after the ATC handoff to SoCal at 01:05
into the recording he
http://www.liveatc.net/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=13234.0;attach=888 3.
That could be a result of many things.

The SoCal receiver is not the same as the Santa Monica tower receiver. These
are just volunteer radios, not official tapes from ATC. There's no way to
tell what the plane transmitted other than by inference.

Your assertion that there were transmissions from the aircraft after the
handoff to SoCal that were not captured on the LiveATC recording seems
unfounded. Do you have another source for those transmissions from the
aircraft that you believe are missing on the LiveATC recording?

The first SoCal transmission to the plane was clearly a response to a call
from the plane. He gave him the altimeter and didn't repeat it, which
implies the plane read it back correctly. Two and a half minutes later,
ATC gave him the vector to final which he didn't respond to. They then
repeatedly tried to get him to respond, even calling him on another
frequency. Two minutes later, it sounds as though ATC thought they had him,
"we've been trying to get ahold of you, turn left immediately and climb..."
Another 3 minutes of trying to get him to climb or turn, and then it was
too late.

I agree that the information available to date does not appear to imply a
violation by SoCal controllers.

Good. "ATC error" in a fatal crash is not something to be expressed without
a very good reason.

--
Don Poitras