pilots with regional airline regional express are no longer allowed to use visual approaches to airports after one captain mistook a row of giant coal loaders for a runway, an air safety report has revealed crews must use navigational equipment   instead of relying on the human eye   after the incident near newcastle's williamtown airport, when kooragang island was mistaken for a landing strip, even though it is 19km away from the small terminal from a pilots perspective williamtown airport, left, has similar features to kooragang island, right a report released on friday by the australian transport safety bureau said air traffic controllers intervened just in time to direct the rex plane back to wiliamtown airport on november 8, 2013 the plane’s crew were given clearance to approach williamtown at about 730pm soon after air traffic controllers noticed the descending plane was making a questionable left hand turn after passing nobbys head a report found williamtown airport, north east of newcastle, was difficult to identify among other features on the ground  the captain is reported to have seen a ‘brightly lit row of buildings’ and believed them to be a part of the airport at this stage the tower controller saw that the plane was ‘manoeuvring at a greater distance than usual from the runway’ and redirected the sydney to newcastle flight, not before it had descended to 450 metres off the ground same, same but different: the kooragang island industrial area is located 19 kilometers from the airport  after landing the pilot told authorities the airport was hard to identify as 'lighting conditions were darker than usual' due to 'cloud cover in the western sky’ regional express pilots have since been told not to make a visual approach, instead using navigation equipment to pinpoint their positions banned: rex airways have ruled out visual approaches after crew incorrectly identified williamtown airport  the report also claims the pilot was effected by an undisclosed illness which left him fatigued 'the captain later reported that he may not have been fully fit for duty and that, in hindsight, the illness may have affected his performance on the newcastle airport flight' a report found williamtown airport, north east of newcastle, was difficult to identify among other features on the ground
2013 19km 450m sydney newcastle rex williamtown
a plane almost landed on a coal loader after pilot mistook it for an airport  the rex flight from sydney to newcastle had descended to 450m when air traffic controllers noticed it had veered off course  it was re directed it to williamtown, 19km away  a report into the 2013 incident found williamtown airport is hard to identify from the sky  subsequently, rex pilots have been banned from using visual approaches and must use navigational equipment 