Cessna Citation Jet Unable to Locate Runway at Las Vegas Airport - Five Attempts to Land - ATC Audio 

Thanks to all the viewers and support of the new video content (recreating flight accidents/incidents) on the channel! The format far exceeded my expectations in terms of response and comments. Lots more planned! Blue skies!

Possibly the most professional ATC I have ever heard and a very, very low performance pilot in a high performance jet. I hope he got a number to call.

That was terrifying. Respect to the controller.

I smell cartel with a crash course in this aircraft

ATC was very helpful and professional to communicate in a positive manner and patient with this situation

The pilot was clearly a Cartel Pilot.

Wow! Just WOW! I agree with other comments. I don’t think this pilot was current on this aircraft. His lack of communication showed he was way behind the aircraft and knew it! He probably was giving himself a cushion as to avoid a stall. Also why not request an instrument approach when you went missed after the second try or deviate to another airport outside of the city. A lot of questions here. I hope you publish the results to any investigations. I’m sure the tower had a number for him to call.

This pilot driving me insane

“Let me know when you have a pen and paper, I have a phone number you need to call”

Top Video !!

ATC: "How many souls are on board"? Pilot: "just me" :)

if i was a beginning pilot and still a bit unsure i would at least do a few try landings in MSFS2020 so i get familiar with the surroundings.

I don’t think this pilot is rated to landing the Citation and possibly not currently required to be flying or licensed to operate it

seriously this guy really has a license?

I sincerely hope the tower controller called the FAA and someone was there to meet this yahoo. He's got to be stopped before he kills someone.

This is the typical NASCAR arrival and approach. Left circuits 200 times before landing.

Wow . That was just scary . How did this fella ever get a pilots license .

I have seen the flightradar track and heard the ATC on VASaviation and I thought the pilot was a complete moron, but your visuals helped me understand that the airport is difficult to see during dawn so thankyou very much!

Very good video - I felt a bit sorry for the pilot and it was a good job he wasn’t low on fuel! I thought it was very difficult to see the runway lights amid all the light pollution of Las Vegas. What a horrible place! I doubt he’d be asked to phone ATC, that usually only happens when they need to have a longer conversation with an aircraft which has broken rules or deliberately not followed a controller’s instructions. The incident would be investigated, but the concerns would be sent to the NTSB surely?

OMG!! Wondering what was going on?? Why did it take him 5 attempts to land? Crazy!!

The person flying that airplane was not a licensed pilot and had no business being where he was. Wasn't listening to ATC. Couldn't control the aircraft. Was there an investigation? A ramp check of his license? A drug & alcohol test?

very scary!

This pilot seems high as a kite.

I am not a pilot, but this guy is clearly struggling. Why not direct him out of the pattern for a long downwind, then direct an extended straight in approach? Much easier for the pilot without so many turns and much less work load. This seemed like a disaster in the making.

How did the controller keep himself from laughing his ass off....??

The controller is flying the plane, something wrong there.

That must have been some one hit weed that he took 5 hits of. How does one obtain a twin jet certification with this lack of competence?

Their getaway to Vegas will be over before they get there.

Did someone report the pilot? There is no way he should be allowed to fly into the US ever again

wow, this guy should been told to call phone number and have is certification checked

Unbelievable

Who the hell gave this guy a pilot's license in the first place!

Did that 'pilot' even know what runway numbers represent?

I looked up North Las Vegas Airport. According to what I read, Runway 12L (the other end of 30R) has ILS, Would it have been easier for the pilot to utilize the ILS to land? Was there too much tailwind for that approach to be used safely? This pilot should have studied his charts and maps of the area thoroughly before taking off.

I was thinking that perhaps someone could light an Orange smoke flare to help the pilot find the runway among the multitude of Las Vegas lights.

We didn't get to hear the cockpit audio before they contacted the controller. It may have went something like this. Hey Carlos (copilot), lets mess with the controller a bit. I'll just fly circles and pretend we don't see the airport. Carlos replies, yeah amigo, we'll make him work tonight. Followed by; mucho funny, I could do this all night.

This guy 100% paid someone to give him his certs in a country where it's easier to bypass the law. He couldn't even figure out how to enter pattern or basic heading instructions and of course poor ATC communication and aircraft control. Something illegal is going on with him and that jet.

seems to be singer gloria trevi airplane, not sure

That is why accidents happens, first a non proeficient pilot onboard a high performance plane, second his not able to identify the runway lights due to a clearly lack of experience, I just hope this guy gets a mandatory suspention because his a hazard for all of us out there who are doing everything right, luckly he found that traffic controller that night.

I'm still trying to figure out how he pulled it together to get it on the ground safely. what a mess... please someone get him out of the cockpit before he kills someone.

Holy crap... I feel that a non-pilot could have been talked down and landed better than that!

Some say, GTT is still circling to this very day...

I am not a conspiracy theorist nor do I like to make claims without having any facts to base it on but am I honestly the only one who thinks this may have been just a trial run for someone or some group to get some information or reaction on what would happen ? I am amazed that this has not come to the attention to some one either at defense or law agency. There is no way that even the most incompetent pilot in the world could have skills that bad, especially since he obviously came from Mexico. So he obviously had some experience. I have flown into that airport many times and know the airspace well. He had to off been speaking to Las Vegas approach already who handed him off to the VGT tower. He didn't initiated contact but it took the controller several attempts to get him to reply. To me he was testing to see how long he could not be in contact with ATC before being possibly considered a threat. They than in my opinion tried to get a better feeling on how close to the Las Vegas strip they could fly without someone starting to consider them as a problem. All the patterns and attempts to land had such different profiles not because he was such a bad pilot but it allowed them to get different landmarks and potential targets. Last and the most disturbing one to me is the variation in speeds. I have never ever in my 30 plus years of flying have heard a controller giving flight instructions to a pilot and pointing out to him he was way to fast to land. Never. Sure I have gotten behind on flying the aircraft during a go around or missed approach and let the speed get away from me momentarily by 10 or 20 even 30 knots but just for a second or two. and immediately get it back on speed but in this case their speed was so terribly managed that there had to been a purpose for doing so.Such as timing from point to point Again, I have zero facts, I have no other information other than watching the video and I have not done any research what so ever on this and everything said is simply my opinion and nothing more. I am not accusing nor claiming in any way that this is indeed what happened. It is just what came to mind for me when I saw this clip.

It's very interesting that this is Las Vegas. It seems to me that there was so: Hey, my new girlfriend! Do you want to fly with me to Vegas on my (or Dad's) plane? I can fly!

was it be a rich China-Man e.g. a Doktor ¿¿

He should be fired...

*this was a SPY FLIGHT obviously, pretending to be inept at approaches*

Is he a pilot

I’d bet money this dude bought his type rating, if he even had one at all! Scary thing is this plane spends a lot of time flying in the US. Hopefully it’s not this idiot at the controls.

When he landed I suppose he was asked to make a phone call to the tower. I’ve flown into Vegas at night and it’s the big rectangular black patch in a sea of lights.

I think a lot of us flight simmers could have done better. Frighteningly horrible.

Unbelievable