A fixed wing mid-air collision first hand account.

[John90290]

Thought i would share this first hand account of a recent mid-air collision in South America- chilling.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/business...nted=1&_r=1

[CFIISanDiego]

I saw a mid-air while sitting on the Ramp at Gillespie Field in San Diego this summer. CREEPY! We thought for sure it was a friend of mine and his student. The news reported it as a R22 and a Cessna, it ended up being 2 Cessnas. I felt sick, I though for sure my friend died. They were out flying in a canyon out of radio range, so they couldn't hear us calling for him. That sucked.

[klas]

The two pilots of the jet that survived had their passports pulled because they might have not descended as they were supposed to:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,217699,00.html

[Hawkdriver]

The two pilots of the jet that survived had their passports pulled because they might have not descended as they were supposed to:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,217699,00.html

 

 

God that story makes it sound as if they blatently ignored the call to descend. Who knows how they missed it, if it was made due to talking on the radio, cockpit, etc..........

 

I also find it hard to believe that two Jets of that level didnt have TCAS working and didnt provide any warning.

 

I will be interested in seeing what the final report was.

 

Tragic none-the-less.

 

Fly safe out there.

[nbit]

It is common not to have radio reception or radar contact in that area. The CVR will tell if they should have heard a clearance. Seems also they should have been given a time to expect a clearance to FL360 as well. It will be interesting to see if that is on the CVR... I have travelled to Brasil (their spelling...) several times and have seen some pretty wierd inconsistencies about visa issuance, holding people's passports, and detaining people on a visa. Since the use of RVSM has been instituted, the planes going the opposite direction on airways always look a lot closer I am still not used to it, and over an area like the Amazon region it seems a little freightening when you don't have someone watching out for you... TCAS doesn't seem give enough warning time when travelling opposite directions without a contrail or something like it to help you see the other guy, IMO. In a flight on a Citation II last week on airways, we passed a 767 & 737 travelling the opposite direction directly overhead at the next flight level above. We probably wouldn't have even noticed them without a contrail. The TCAS audio did not go off either time, but we were told of the traffic by the controller, and they did show on our FMS display. If the controller hadn't been heard, we hadn't seen a contrail, or glanced down at the FMS, we would have never seen them before it was too late if they were at our altitude. As I understand it, the error in the RVSM allows us to pass to within 800' of each other, presuming everything is accurate as advertised and pilots are putting the aircraft where they are supposed to be... Granted, it sounds like these two aircraft were purposely flown at FL370, and one of them stands accused of being in the wrong place by the sounds of things.

[joker]

Tragic