According to the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), the captain was performing the pilot-flying (PF) duties, and the first officer was performing the pilot-not-flying (PNF) duties. Upon arrival to the Guam area, the first officer made initial contact with the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Guam Combined Center/Radar Approach Control (CERAP) controller about 0103:18, when the airplane was level at 41,000 feet mean sea level (msl) and about 240 nautical miles (nm) northwest of the NIMITZ VOR/DME.[1]
About 0105:00, the CERAP controller told flight 801 to expect to land on runway 6L, and the first officer acknowledged the transmission. About 0110:00, the controller instructed flight 801 to "...descend at your discretion maintain two thousand six hundred [feet msl]." The first officer responded, "...descend two thousand six hundred pilot discretion."
About 0111:51, the CVR[2] recorded the captain briefing the first officer and the flight engineer about the approach and landing at Guam. The captain stated:
- I will give you a short briefing...ILS [instrument landing system[3]] is one one zero three...NIMITZ VOR is one one five three, the course zero six three, since the visibility is six, when we are in the visual approach, as I said before, set the VOR on number two and maintain the VOR for the TOD [top of descent],[4] I will add three miles from the VOR, and start descent when we're about one hundred fifty five miles out. I will add some more speed above the target speed. Well, everything else is all right. In case of go-around, since it is VFR [visual flight rules], while staying visual and turning to the right...request a radar vector...if not, we have to go to FLAKE[5]...since the localizer glideslope is out,13 MDA [minimum descent altitude] is five hundred sixty feet and HAT [height above touchdown] is three hundred four feet....
About 0113:33, the CVR recorded the captain saying, "we better start descent;" shortly thereafter, the first officer advised the controller that flight 801 was "leaving four one zero for two thousand six hundred." The controller acknowledged the transmission.
The CVR recorded the captain making several remarks related to crew scheduling and rest issues. About 0120:01, the captain stated, "if this round trip is more than a nine hour trip, we might get a little something...with eight hours, we get nothing...eight hours
- ↑ VOR/DME stands for very high frequency omnidirectional radio range/distance measuring equipment. DME is expressed in miles.
- ↑ Appendix B contains the CVR transcript. The transcript expresses the times of the CVR comments and sounds in coordinated universal time (UTC). Guam local time is 10 hours ahead of UTC time.
- ↑ The ILS is a precision approach system that provides lateral guidance (localizer) and vertical alignment (glideslope) with the runway. The system uses ground-based radio transmitters that provide both the localizer and the glideslope signals. See sections 1.6.2.3 and 1.10.2 for additional information.
- ↑ TOD is the departing cruise altitude.
- ↑ The FLAKE intersection is 7 DME from the NIMITZ VOR and is on the 242° radial. An intersection can be defined by the crossing of two radials or by a specific distance on a bearing from a navigational aid. An ILS approach can either be flown as a "full ILS" precision approach or a localizer-only, nonprecision approach. The criteria for both approaches are often presented on the same chart. For information on how the accident flight crew was to execute the nonprecision, localizer-only approach for runway 6L, see section 1.10.3.1.
