Yesterday, it was reported that two airplanes, a Cessna single-engine 172 that was being flown by a student pilot and a flight instructor and a Cessna 310 twin-engine, collided off the coast of Southern California shortly after taking off from Long Beach Airport. At press time, there were no indications of any survivors.
The incident serves as a reminder that although mid-air collisions are relatively rare, they can and do occur and, as noted by Vincent of Plastic Pilot in an entry late last year (Mid-air collisions: a consequence of modern aviation?), they seem to be occurring more regularly. Vincent suggests that this might just be a consequence of all of those technological developments and fancy gizmos (or rather the people who are using them) that we have all come to take for granted. He proceeds to list some of these gizmos (GPS, auto-pilots, glass-cockpits, TIS, Mode-S and ADS-B) and examine how they or the people who (mis)use them can contribute to mid-air collisions.
Nevertheless, there are simple actions that a pilot can take to avoid these types of mishaps. The most obvious actions are to know where the high density traffic areas are, always monitor the appropriate radio frequencies, turn on your transponder and constantly clear (visually AND over the your landing lights on. Moreover, always practice appropriate clearing procedures before performing a change in altitude and always be aware of and comply with any applicable rules regarding the airspace you are in. In addition, be sure to keep your windshield absolutely clean as even a bug or a speck of dirt can obscure an aircraft coming directly at you until its to late. And finally, do NOT rely on ATC to keep other aircraft away from you. In fact, they may not even be aware of all aircraft operating in your airspace. Hence, it is up to you to stay alert and to be scanning the horizon – especially in areas with high density air traffic. And remember, if two airplanes can collide over the middle of the Amazon rainforest (Collision over the Amazon) then it can happen ANYWHERE and to ANYONE.
Keeping the above tips in mind will help you to avoid unfortunate incidents like the one that just occurred off the coast of Southern California.
Related posts:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post, and thank you for the link.
I recently saw how useful the traffic information in the G1000 can be. I took my MEP / IR training in Egelsbach (EDFE), which is the busiest general aviation airport in Germany. It is a non-controlled airport but with a good information service and statistics shown up to 80 movements per hour ! All of it is stuck below the airspace of Frankfurt TMA and this is probably the denser airspace I flew in. It easily compares with London.
The traffic displayed on the G1000 was a great help and it happened once that we could not spot a traffic displayed at least than 2 miles, 600 feet above. But as great as the tool is one must remember that it can only display aircraft with an active transponder. This excludes most of the gliders and a lot of vintage aircraft, plus all those who think that sqawking is not good.
I’m always amazed there have been no mid-air collisions in the narrow corridor between the Heathrow zone and the Luton/Stansted zones. Flying from Booker to North Weald, past Elstree, it can get very, very busy with everything sitting at 2,400 ft.
But, of course, everyone knows how busy it is and is therefore extra vigilante. An actual mid-air is much more likely in the middle of nowhere when both pilots assume they’re the only ones there.
I’m not sure the Brazil crash is relevant though. There two planes were placed on collision courses by ATC. The only surprising thing is that anyone survived at all.