NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Cessna 402 pilot reported encountering wake turbulence on approach to BOS.
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 took off out of ZZZ [Airport] VFR with no issue. BOS Approach cleared me into the Bravo via the Bravo 04L. They put us on a heading towards Boston and pointed out the parallel traffic for 4R. Approach turned us on the right side and in front of traffic for 4R, I had them in sight the entire time. Approach told us direct to the numbers, 170 or better, and to start the descent, so we could go faster. At this point we were about 5 miles out and still right of the traffic and at the same altitude. Approach cleared us for the visual 4L and switched us over to Tower. Tower still wanted us to go fast and cleared us to land 4L. So I decided to level off briefly so I could get behind and above the traffic on 4R. Once I was crossing behind them, we entered their wake. It felt like it was moderate turbulence. I felt my head hit the ceiling, however the plane was still under control and I was able to line up for 4L. Landing was normal and taxied to the gate. Once the engines were stopped I turned to the passengers and asked if everyone was alright. They all said they were fine and appeared good as well. Nobody mentioned that they got hurt. While walking out of the plane I fixed the seatbelts and did my walk around, everything looked normal. Cause: Being vectored on the right side at the same altitude and in front of faster traffic landing the right while being cleared for the visual on the left. Getting to close to the wakes of other traffic. And not telling Approach that I wanted to be re-vectored around.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Environment - Non Weather Related · Procedure
- Primary Problem
- Ambiguous
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 ↗.