NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
EMB-145 First Officer reported encountering wake turbulence on short final at DEN.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
We departed ZZZ with 7000 pounds of fuel. Release called for 6500. We were rerouted on the arrival into DEN. I asked Captain if fuel was a concern. At first he stated that he had no concern and then he became focused on a page in the FMS that showed remaining minutes in the flight and became obsessed with that page. Even though the page showed remaining minutes in the flight and not remaining fuel, he seemed to be misunderstanding that page. We reported to ATC that we were concerned about fuel due to the rerouting and Captain called Dispatch. I was the pilot flying (PF) on this leg. While Captain was on the radio with the Company, ATC came back and reported that they could get us in. I began to set us up for the approach into DEN. After the call with Company, Captain was agitated and frustrated and reported, "We are on our own." I tried to assuage Captain and assured him that DEN was getting us in and there was no need to worry. (I did not actually see fuel as a concern at this point as we were descending into DEN.) Upon commencing the visual approach, Captain declared "My controls" and took over as PF. ATC advised us to slow to 190. We were flying at 233. I asked Captain if he wanted flaps to help slow us. He declared negative as he was concerned about drag due to an incorrectly perceived fuel issue. Captain refused to slow as he was concerned about sacrificing speed. ATC advised us to slow to 170. We were still far too fast. We were getting far too close to the plane ahead of us on final. We were advised that if we did not slow we would have to go around. ATC asked if we were [requesting priority] for fuel problem. With 2300 pounds of fuel on short final, I did not agree but Captain declared, "Yes," so I reported "Affirmative." The plane ahead of us was ordered to go around at approximately 200 ft. Experiencing their wake was severe and I believe unnecessary. When we landed, the Flight Attendant (FA) immediately remarked, "What happened?!" We landed with about 2300 pounds of fuel and I do not believe that we truly ever experienced a "[fuel problem]."
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Environment - Non Weather Related · Human Factors · Procedure
- Primary Problem
- Human Factors
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.