NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
PBI TRACON Controller reported aircraft deviated from approach course twice, resulted in descent below MVA and a CFIT event.
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.
Aircraft X was cleared RNAV 12 approach at SUA and requested to switch to SUA tower. I exchanged traffic for a VFR in vicinity and switched aircraft. I noticed the aircraft off the approach course and going through MVA, advised SUA to cancel approach clearance and give him back to me on H360 and 2000 feet. I reestablished communication and vectored the aircraft back to a downwind, issued brasher warning, and vectored to approach. After aircraft was noticed established on approach course I switched to tower. I noticed the aircraft then tracking south of the approach course and called SUA to advise the aircraft to correct and to ensure aircraft complying with the approach. Pilot advised PBI management they overlooked the procedure and made an error.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Deviation - Track / Heading
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Human Factors
- 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 ↗.