Originally Posted by
cactipilot
What a sad day. my condolences to everyone who might have known the crew. Not having landed on 33 before, can one of the PSA guyr/girls say what do you usually do with the box on a last minute runway change like that? Obviously it was a visual but does SOP make the PM change the runway in the FMS? I'm just wondering if one of the crew was heads down in that turn changing things and that might have reduced the eyes out for at least a few seconds. DCA is a fun approach but night and visual and gusty and busy makes it a be on your game time.
The only thing we’re required to do is brief the circle to land to that runway. We aren’t required to load the visual into the FMS. I’ve flown with a few captains about 2-3 years ago that preferred to load the visual Rwy 33 into the box, but I’ve noticed it just increases head down time unnecessarily. Most captains don’t load anything. After accepting a clearance, we just break off the extended centerline for runway 1 just prior to the Woodrow Wilson bridge, follow the I295 corridor for a little bit, while looking out the window to the left and watching primarily the PAPI’s (if they’re working, usually they are). After seeing it once, it’s really not that much, and maybe a little bit easier than landing south on the river visual 19, especially if there’s minimal crosswind. We cannot accept it if we haven’t briefed it.