This week: the 1986 mid-air collision between an airliner and a general-aviation plane that led to massive changes in how the US handled collision avoidance and airspace. If you like the Admiral's...
This week: the 1986 mid-air collision between an airliner and a general-aviation plane that led to massive changes in how the US handled collision avoidance and airspace.
the leading edge of the jet’s horizontal stabilizer sliced clean through the PA-28’s cabin at window height, instantly decapitating all three occupants.
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The immediate fate of the PA-28’s occupants was attested by the grim discovery of partial human remains inside the DC-9’s horizontal stabilizer, among other items.
that was fascinating, I had heard of the TCAS system before but not the role this collision played in accelerating its adoption in the US. something I find particularly interesting about TCAS is...
that was fascinating, I had heard of the TCAS system before but not the role this collision played in accelerating its adoption in the US.
something I find particularly interesting about TCAS is that it's (as far as I know) the only time that a pilot is not just permitted to disobey air traffic control, but is actually required to do so.
It was a situation for which they had never been trained: a controller telling them to descend to avoid another aircraft, while TCAS simultaneously instructed them to climb. It would obviously be impossible to comply with both. So which order should they trust? Which took priority?
Meanwhile on the Boeing 757, Captain Phillips received an opposite resolution advisory. “DESCEND! DESCEND!” the robotic voice called out, and he immediately pushed his yoke forward to reach the target descent rate. The instruction came concurrently with Nielsen’s identical instruction to the Tupolev, causing him to miss this critical exchange. Both planes were now descending toward each other at a closing speed of more than 1,300 kilometers per hour.
This week: the 1986 mid-air collision between an airliner and a general-aviation plane that led to massive changes in how the US handled collision avoidance and airspace.
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I grew up around the Cerritos area. There's a memorial for all the victims of this tragedy next to the Cerritos library.
Holy shit:
And they were the lucky ones.
that was fascinating, I had heard of the TCAS system before but not the role this collision played in accelerating its adoption in the US.
something I find particularly interesting about TCAS is that it's (as far as I know) the only time that a pilot is not just permitted to disobey air traffic control, but is actually required to do so.
for an example of why, here's another Admiral Cloudberg writeup from last year, about the 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision