Two different styles of Piper aircraft collided in Polk County Florida earlier this week with four people being killed. The one plane was from a flight school with a flight instructor onboard and a 19-year old student onboard being killed while the other plane had a pilot and passenger onboard.
The NTSB is investigating, but hasn’t yet released any information. Most of these small planes fly too low for them to be seen on radar and neither plane would be required to have TCAS (Traffic Collision and Avoidance System) onboard. The big planes which have TCAS are warned of another plane in their flight path between 25-40 miles. One plane will get an aural warning to climb while the other plane will get an aural warning to descend. If you don’t understand, an aural warning is a warning that states out loud to the pilots, “Climb now!” Or “Descend now!” One plane descends 500 feet or more while the other plane climbs 500 feet or more.
There was an accident in 2002 when a Russian passenger plane and a DHL plane carrying cargo collided over Germany because the pilots disregarded their TCAS warnings and instead listened to the air controller’s instructions, which gave them different instructions. Since that accident, the FAA has made it a rule to disregard any instructions from the air traffic controllers and only act as TCAS instructs the pilots to act. Later, a husband and father who had his family on the passenger plane hunted down the controller and stabbed him to death.
Planes Collide
ATC Killed
The NTSB is investigating, but hasn’t yet released any information. Most of these small planes fly too low for them to be seen on radar and neither plane would be required to have TCAS (Traffic Collision and Avoidance System) onboard. The big planes which have TCAS are warned of another plane in their flight path between 25-40 miles. One plane will get an aural warning to climb while the other plane will get an aural warning to descend. If you don’t understand, an aural warning is a warning that states out loud to the pilots, “Climb now!” Or “Descend now!” One plane descends 500 feet or more while the other plane climbs 500 feet or more.
There was an accident in 2002 when a Russian passenger plane and a DHL plane carrying cargo collided over Germany because the pilots disregarded their TCAS warnings and instead listened to the air controller’s instructions, which gave them different instructions. Since that accident, the FAA has made it a rule to disregard any instructions from the air traffic controllers and only act as TCAS instructs the pilots to act. Later, a husband and father who had his family on the passenger plane hunted down the controller and stabbed him to death.
Planes Collide
ATC Killed
