737 crazy low & sharp turn (cape town)

[Brawler]

I stay in the flightpath to CTIA so I'm quite used to the sound of planes landing and taking off.
Just about shat myself now at a loud roar. Caught a glimpse of a Safair 737 doing a absolutely crazy steep and low 360 turn before landing.



He was at about 600m / 183mph before throttling up and steep banking right.

Runway incursion? coming in too low?

FA103 (SFR103) Safair Flight Tracking and History - FlightAware

Track Safair (FA) #103 flight from OR Tambo Int'l to Cape Town Int'l

flightaware.com

 

[Arthur]

Yikes.
Keep us posted if you find out more.

 

[Geoff.D]

I stay in the flightpath to CTIA so I'm quite used to the sound of planes landing and taking off.
Just about shat myself now at a loud roar. Caught a glimpse of a Safair 737 doing a absolutely crazy steep and low 360 turn before landing.

View attachment 1361661

He was at about 600m / 183mph before throttling up and steep banking right.

Runway incursion? coming in too low?

FA103 (SFR103) Safair Flight Tracking and History - FlightAware

Track Safair (FA) #103 flight from OR Tambo Int'l to Cape Town Int'l

flightaware.com

Heard this guy as well. Went out to have a look but he was too far over west of us -- disappeared behind the Tygerberg ridge ----

Just as well he banked right and not left -------

 

[Agent_Smith]

Last thing the black box will capture is, "WATCH THIS!"

 

[Gordon_R]

That's a fairly extreme maneuver, and definitely not normal for that approach!? The raw data seem to be (barely) within safe limits for a passenger aircraft, though it probably needs further investigation as to why they proceeded:

04:39PM -33.82 18.56 ↓ 167° 173 3050
04:40PM -33.85 18.56 ↓ 166° 164 2250
04:40PM -33.86 18.57 ↓ 174° 158 2075
04:41PM -33.87 18.53 ↖ 321° 147 2600
04:41PM -33.86 18.53 ↑ 357° 140 2750
04:42PM -33.85 18.53 ↗ 31° 145 2825
04:42PM -33.85 18.54 → 69° 155 2825
04:42PM -33.85 18.55 ↘ 115° 166 2700
04:42PM -33.86 18.57 ↘ 141° 166 2450
04:43PM -33.87 18.57 ↓ 170° 169 2100
04:43PM -33.88 18.57 ↓ 167° 162 1800

Letting the airspeed drop to 140kts while turning sharply is definitely not recommended. I wouldn't be surprised if the stall warning alarm sounded. Wonder if they pulled the CVR and flight data recorders?