This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Conducting continuous left closed traffic operations on Runway 20L at John Wayne/Orange County Airport (KSNA) in California in a Cessna 172S with myself sitting left seat and student sitting right seat as they are training for CFI.
An Airbus A320 was landing on the parallel Runway 20R and was advised to maintain visible separation and caution wake turbulence from KSNA tower 119.9 for that Airbus. We accepted and were cleared for the option Runway 20L. Airbus A320 continued to land and made it to Runway 20R while we were turning base to final Runway 20L.
We altered our flight path to remain above that of the Airbus as winds were reported and observed to be a right crosswind.
Meanwhile a B737 moved forward to cross Runway 20L and hold short 20R on Lima. This reaffirmed our decision to remain high to avoid jet blast as well as the landing Airbus’s wake.
Continuing the descent to land, stable and configured, aircraft encountered the onset of wake turbulence forces and began to roll right uncommanded directly above 20L runway threshold at approximately 75-100 feet AGL.
I instructed the student to immediately initiate a go-around to which there was a delayed reaction, within 1-2 seconds after command was given, aircraft encountered substantially stronger wake turbulence forces and abruptly rolled uncommanded to the right, departing controlled flight rolling to approximately 40° of bank and -10°+ of nose pitch down.
With student’s delayed reaction to go-around I commanded “my controls” which were not relinquished, causing me to forcefully take the controls with continuous verbal command given in a raised voice.
With forceful takeover of the controls, immediate full power was commanded and began to maneuver to avoid contacting the ground and the B737 holding between the runways on L. Aircraft was on a collision course with the B737’s left wing section, which was narrowly avoided after regaining controlled flight by a margin of 20-50 feet from the B737 and 15-30 feet from the ground.
After successful maneuvering to avoid collision, continued a recovery and climb back towards Runway 20L center line as the aircraft made it roughly to location of the Runway 20R PAPIs at its furthest deviation.
John Wayne Tower was then advised of the go-around and presence of severe wake turbulence event. Tower acknowledged and was startled as well as they witnessed the occurrence and asked if we request any assistance. Advised we did not require assistance and no aircraft damage was observed followed by requesting to terminate. Flight was terminated, returned to parking and assessed for any damage. None observed.
This type of wake turbulence incident has become so common my flight school now recommends not using KSNA for training operations when there is a right crosswind.
Primary Problem: Ambiguous
ACN: 2082586
I, too, fly out of John Wayne/Orange Co. airport (KSNA) where wake turbulence is a common occurrence. In fact, I have been caught twice in this turbulence and (since I record most of my flights) have both events captured on video. In the first video link shown below, I was only 100 feet above the ground (at night) and did a go-around. On the second video link, the wake turbulence happened a bit earlier when I was a little higher and had more time to recover and make a safe (daytime) landing.
These days, whenever an airliner or business jet touches down ahead of me on the parallel runway and there is a chance of wake turbulence, I’ll go-around–unless the prevailing winds are blowing the airliner vortex in the opposite direction (which is not common at KSNA).
https://youtu.be/lj0OIcQjQ9I
https://youtu.be/y7CXuX7XfZc
Question for a CFI: If the crosswind was from the right, why would the roll have been to the right? It seems counter-intuitive.
All of our training involves muscle memory. A simple exercise for every CFI with any student, regardless of experience, ground school and on the ramp and even when taxiing, give the command, “My Controls” and require the student to physically release the controls and raise open hands. Do this at least 10 times to create the muscle memory condition. Simple, safe and accident preventive training.
As a CFI for 46 I’ve had a few instances of trainees not relinquishing the controls when I stated I have the controls. This should be emphasized with every new trainee, whether Student Pilot or someone going for their CFI. Whenever a CFI states he has the controls get off the controls! Often the CFI see things developing that the trainee doesn’t.